author
Mrs. Harry Coghill
1836–1907
An English-born poet, novelist, and teacher who built a literary life between Britain and Canada, she is best remembered for vivid nature writing and the hymn text later known as “Work, for the Night Is Coming.” Her books range from poems shaped by Canadian landscapes to popular novels and thoughtful biographical work.
3 Audiobooks
A Canadian Heroine, Volume 1 A Novel
by Mrs. Harry Coghill
A Canadian Heroine, Volume 3 A Novel
by Mrs. Harry Coghill
A Canadian Heroine, Volume 2 A Novel
by Mrs. Harry Coghill
About the author
Born in Staffordshire around 1836, Annie Louisa Walker later wrote under the married name Mrs. Harry Coghill. As a child she moved with her family to Lower Canada, and those early years helped shape some of her best-known writing about landscape, faith, and everyday life.
She began publishing poems while still young, and her early collection Leaves from the Backwoods drew on her Canadian experience. She also worked as a teacher and went on to publish novels, verse, and other prose, building a career that connected English and Canadian literary worlds.
After marrying Harry Coghill in London in 1884, she continued to write and is now often remembered both as a novelist and as the author of the words later used for the hymn “Work, for the Night Is Coming.” She died in Bath in 1907.