author
Adelaide Anne Procter
1825–1864
A beloved Victorian poet and hymn writer, she paired musical, memorable verse with a deep concern for women’s work, poverty, and faith. Her poems reached a huge readership in her lifetime and stayed popular long after her early death.
3 Audiobooks
A House to Let
by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Adelaide Anne Procter
Legends and Lyrics. Part 1
by Adelaide Anne Procter
Legends and Lyrics. Part 2
by Adelaide Anne Procter
About the author
Born in London on October 30, 1825, Adelaide Anne Procter grew up in a literary household: her father was the poet Bryan Waller Procter, known as Barry Cornwall. She began writing young, and her poems appeared in Charles Dickens’s journals Household Words and All the Year Round, sometimes under the pseudonym "Miss Berwick."
Procter became one of the best-known poets of her day. Alongside her writing, she was active in charitable and social causes, especially work connected with women’s employment and support for people in poverty. She also converted to Roman Catholicism, and faith became an important part of her life and writing.
Her best-known work includes poems and lyrics that were often turned into hymns, such as "The Lost Chord." She died in London on February 2, 1864, at just 38, but her poetry remained widely read in the Victorian period and helped secure her place as a writer remembered for both feeling and conscience.