Jean Ingelow

Off the Skelligs (Dodo Press) Jean Ingelow

Jean Ingelow (1820-1897) was an English poet and novelist. As a girl she contributed verses and tales to magazines under the pseudonym of Orris, but her first (anonymous) volume, A Rhyming Chronicle of Incidents and Feelings, did not appear until her thirtieth year. She followed this book of verse in 1851 with a story, Allerton and Dreux, but it was the publication of her Poems in 1863 which suddenly made her a popular writer. They ran rapidly through numerous editions, were set to music, and sung in every drawing-room, and in the United States obtained even greater public acclaim. In 1867 she published The Story of Doom and Other Poems, and then gave up verse for a while and became industrious as a novelist. Off the Skelligs appeared in 1872, Fated to be Free in 1873, Sarah de Berenger in 1880, and John Jerome: His Thoughts and Ways in 1886. She also wrote Studies for Stories (1864), Stories Told to a Child (1865), Mopsa the Fairy (1869) and other excellent stories for children. Her third series of Poems was published in 1885.