Alice Meynell

Martin Dubois (University of Durham)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Dates

Born 22 Sep 1847
Died 27 Nov 1922
Activity 1890-1910

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Essayist
Poet

Resources

Meynell's Works

Save to Bookshelf

Alice Meynell, poet, essayist and journalist, was born in Barnes, Surrey, on 11 October 1847. She was the younger daughter of Thomas and Christiana Thompson. Her father had inherited wealth from sugar plantations in the West Indies, enabling the leisurely pursuit of a variety of political and artistic interests. He was a widower by the time he met Christiana in 1844, an aspiring concert pianist. They were married a year later. Dickens, through whom the couple had met, was a witness at the wedding. Their other daughter, Elizabeth (known as Mimi), was born in 1846.

The family spent much of Alice’s childhood on the continent, rarely settling in one place for any length of time, though often drawn to Italy’s Ligurian coast. Alice retained a lifelong love of Italy from these early years.

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2914 words

Citation: Dubois, Martin. "Alice Meynell". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 March 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3099, accessed 23 November 2024.]