Mary Elizabeth Coleridge was born in London in 1861 and was descended from an acclaimed literary family, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge as her great-great-uncle and Sara Coleridge as her aunt. Her father was a Clerk of the Assize on the Midland Circuit but both her parents were strong enthusiasts of the arts and the Coleridge home became something of a London salon with frequent literary and artistic visitors including Tennyson, Ruskin, Fanny Kemble, Holman Hunt, Millais and the poet Coleridge revered most, Robert Browning.
Coleridge lived with her family all her life, choosing to remain single and dedicate herself to her work. Like Elizabeth Barrett Browning and a number of other Victorian women poets, she was committed to a rigorous programme of self-education, reading widely in
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Citation: Avery, Simon. "Mary Coleridge". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 October 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=948, accessed 24 November 2024.]
