Adelaide Anne Procter
Adelaide Anne Procter (30 October 1825 – 2 February 1864) was an English poet and philanthropist.
Adelaide Anne Procter | |
|---|---|
Undated portrait by Emma Gaggiotti Richards | |
| Born | 30 October 1825 London, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |
| Died | 2 February 1864 (aged 38) London, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |
| Resting place | Kensal Green Cemetery |
| Occupation(s) | Poet, philanthropist |
Her literary career began when she was a teenager, her poems appearing in Charles Dickens's periodicals Household Words and All the Year Round, and later in feminist journals. Her charity work and her conversion to Roman Catholicism seem to have influenced her poetry, which deals with such subjects as homelessness, poverty, and fallen women, among whom she performed philanthropic work. Procter was the favourite poet of Queen Victoria. Coventry Patmore called her the most popular poet of the day, after Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Few modern critics have rated her work, but it is still thought significant for what it reveals about how Victorian women expressed otherwise repressed feelings.
Procter never married. Her health suffered, possibly due to overwork, and she died of tuberculosis at the age of 38.