Dinah Maria Craik (née Dinah Maria Mulock, also often credited as Miss Mulock) (20 April 1826 - 12 October 1887) was an English novelist and poet. She was born at Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire. April 20 is the 110th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (111th in leap years). ... The oldest surviving photograph, Nicéphore Niépce, circa 1826 1826 (MDCCCXXVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... October 12 is the 285th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (286th in leap years). ... 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar). ... The city of Stoke-on-Trent (also known as The Six Towns and The Potteries) is a city in The Midlands, United Kingdom. ... Staffordshire (abbreviated Staffs) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. ...

After the death of her mother in 1845, Dinah Maria Mulock had settled in London about 1846. She was determined to obtain a livelihood by her pen, and, beginning with fiction for children, advanced steadily until placed in the front rank of the women novelists of her day. London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England and is the most populous city in the European Union. ...

She is best known for the novel John Halifax, Gentleman (1857). She followed this with A Life for a Life (1859), which she considered to be the best of her novels; others were The Ogilvies (1849), Olive (1850), The Head of the Family (1851), Agatha's Husband (1853), Hannah (1871), and Young Mrs. Jardine (1879).

Other works include Avillion and other Tales (1853), and The Little Lame Prince and his Travelling Cloak (1875). She published some poetry, narratives of tours in Ireland and Cornwall, and A Woman's Thoughts about Women (1858). The Little Lame Prince and his Travelling Cloak (often published under its shorter title The Little Lame Prince) is a story for children written by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik and first published in 1875. ...

She married George Lillie Craik, a partner with Alexander Macmillan in the publishing house of Macmillan & Company, in 1864. They adopted a foundling baby girl, Dorothy, in 1869. George Lillie Craik (1798 - 1866) was a Scottish writer and literary critic. ... Alexander Stirling MacMillan (October 31, 1871-August 7, 1955) was a Nova Scotia politician and businessman. ... Macmillan is a global publishing firm founded in 1843 by Daniel and Alexander Macmillan, two brothers from the Isle of Arran, Scotland. ... 1869 (MDCCCLXIX) is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ...

At Shortlands, near Bromley, Kent, while in a period of preparation for Dorothy's wedding, she died of heart failure on 12 October 1887, aged 61. Her last words were reported to have been: "Oh, if I could live four weeks longer! but no matter, no matter!" Bromley is the principal town in the London Borough of Bromley. ... Kent is a county in England, south-east of London. ... October 12 is the 285th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (286th in leap years). ... 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar). ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Her final book, "An Unknown Country", was published by Harper and Brothers in 1887, the year of her death. Encyclopædia Britannica, the 11th edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Dinah Craik

• Works by Dinah Craik at Project Gutenberg
• Dinah Craik at "Literary Heritage"
• Dinah Craik at the Literary Encyclopedia
• Dinah Mulock Craik by Sally Mitchell, a detailed account of her life and works at The Victorian Web.
• Works of Craik at the Victorian Women Writers Project, University of Indiana
• Selected poetry at the University of Toronto
• Did George Eliot say this? - On quotations of Craik commonly misattributed to George Eliot