Item List (6)

  • Type is exactly "Novels and Poems"

Frontispiece: Annie Webb-Peploe, The Pilgrims of New England: A Tale of the Early American Settlers (London: Ward, Lock & Tyler, 1853), p.iv.
Annie Webb-Peploe (1805–1869) was born in Ludlow, Shropshire, the daughter of Captain John Molyneux (1769-1832) and Ella Molyneux (1780-1836). In 1828 she married John Birch Webb (1776–1869), the vicar of Weobly, Herefordshire. The family took the…

G. K. Chesterton at work
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874 – 1936), born in Campden Hill in Kensington, London, became one of the leading literary figures of his age. A well-known poet, novelist, and journalist he was described by George Bernard Shaw as ‘a man of colossal…

Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1860) was born in Coxhoe Hall, Durham, and the eldest child of 12 siblings (8 boys and 4 girls). For over two hundred years the Barrett family had resided in Jamaica as the owners of sugar plantations which profited…

Felicia Hemans
Felicia Hemans (1793-1835) was born in Liverpool to local merchant George Brown and Felicity Wagner, she was the fifth of seven children. Perhaps more than any other poet Hemans cemented the lasting popular appeal of the Mayflower myth through her…

Wood engraving of Ebenezer Elliott from Howitt’s Journal published 3 April 1847
Ebenezer Elliott (1781-1849) was born in Masbrough, near Rotherham, Yorkshire. His father was a fiery Calvanist and radical known as "Devil Elliott" for his passionate sermons. Ebenezer Elliot inherited something of this radical politics but was also…

A photograph of John Boyle O'Reilly (1844-1890) taken whilst he was in prison in 1866
Born at Dowth Castle, near Drogheda, Co. Meath, Ireland, John Boyle O’Reilly (1844-1890) was a journalist, writer and civil rights activist. He worked as a recruiter for the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood, also known as the IRB or Fenian…