Alice Corkran
Alice Abigail Corkran was an Irish author of children's fiction and an editor of children's magazines. Born in France to Irish parents, she grew up in the stimulating environment of her mother's literary salon. She was a playmate of Robert Browning's ageing father, and still had his workbooks in her possession when she died. As well as writing a number of well received novels, she edited first the Bairn's Annual and then The Girl's Realm, being the founder of that magazine's Guild of Service and Good Fellowship, which maintained a cot at the Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, among other charitable works. Early life Alice Corkran was born in Paris, France to John Frazer Corkran (18081884) and Louisa Walsh (18231892). She was the second oldest of five children: three girls, and two boys. Her father began life as a dramatist and had a play, The Painter of Italy, well received at the Theatre Royal, Dublin on 9 March 1840, but by that time he was already in Paris. He was the Paris correspondent of the Morning Herald and the Evening Standard. John was in Paris for all the excitement of the 1848 revolution and he wrote a book: History of the National Constituent Assembly from May, 1848 (1849) that was said to be still the standard text on the constituent assembly more than 30 years later. Louisa Corkran married her husband in Dublin in June or July 1839. They were soon in Paris where their five children were born; the first, Henrietta, was born on 21 October 1841. Louisa's salon in Paris was frequented by M. Vigny, and by the whole literary group that acknowledged him as the leader. The poet Robert Browning was a friend, and his wife travelled twice a year to Paris to visit Louisa. Thackeray, then writing Vanity Fair, was also a friend of the family and almost acted as a fairy godfather to the children. When the family returned to London, her house in Bloomsbury became a rendezvous for many eminent men and women of letters. Alice Corkran grew up in a stimulating environment. She was the playmate of Robert Browning's father, and she used to accompany the old man on his rambles along the quays in search of subjects to sketch. She was the old man's favourite. She published some of his sketches to illustrate an article about the Brownings in The Girl's Realm in 1905. She still had his old notebooks with their sketches when she died. Corkran was educated at home and studied art in Paris until the family had to leave Paris following some reverses of fortune. They moved to Bloomsbury in London. Works Longer works Corkran's fame rested in particular on her first novel Bessie Lang as well as her other novel Down the Snow Stairs. These works were cited occasionally to reference the author. Both attracted very positive critical attention on first publication. Of Bessie Lang reviewers said: "so sweet, so simple, and at the same time so