Dinah Maria Craik (Dinah Maria Mulock) (1826-87)

English novelist and poet, born at Stoke-on-Trent, and brought up in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. The family moved to London in 1839. Dinah began with fiction for children, and was ultimately regarded as one of the major women novelists of her day. In 1864 she married George Lillie Craik, a partner with Alexander Macmillan in the publishing house of Macmillan & Company.

Alice Learmont (1852), inspired by the Scottish ballad, “Thomas Rymer”, describes how Alice, a descendant of the legendary Thomas who was seduced by the Queen of Elfland, is stolen from her cradle by the elves and grows up in their country. She is finally released from her thraldom by her mother’s determined love and by the spirit of Thomas Rymer himself. Other works include John Halifax, Gentlemen (1856), The Adventures of a Brownie (1872), The Little Lame Prince and His Travelling Cloak (1875), and Collected Poems (1881). (M. Y.)