author
Mary Hooper
1829–1904
Best known for practical Victorian cookbooks, this English writer also published novels and books for children. She brought everyday household knowledge to a wide readership and even taught cookery and domestic economy at the Crystal Palace School.
1 Audiobook
Nelson's Home Comforts Thirteenth Edition
by Mary Hooper
About the author
Mary Ann Harriet Margaret Hooper was an English writer baptized on November 24, 1829, and she died on January 8, 1904. She is chiefly remembered for her cookbooks, but she also wrote novels and children's books.
Her work had a practical, approachable flavor that helped make domestic life and cookery part of popular reading. Sources also describe her as a teacher at the Crystal Palace School of Arts, Science and Literature, where she became a professor of domestic economy.
That mix of teaching and writing helps explain her appeal today: her books sit at the meeting point of literature, household history, and everyday Victorian life.