27 Facts About Alice Corkran

Alice Abigail Corkran was an Irish author of children's fiction and an editor of children's magazines.

Alice Corkran was a playmate of Robert Browning's ageing father, and still had his workbooks in her possession when she died.

Alice Corkran wrote several well-received novels, particularly Bessie Lang and Down the Snow Stairs.

Alice Corkran 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.

Alice Corkran was born in Paris, France, to John Frazer Corkran and Louisa Walsh.

Alice Corkran was the second oldest of five children: three girls, and two boys.

Alice Corkran's 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.

Alice Corkran was the Paris correspondent of the Morning Herald and the Evening Standard.

Louisa Corkran married her husband in Dublin in June or July 1839.

Alice Corkran 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.

Alice Corkran published some of his sketches to illustrate an article about the Brownings in The Girl's Realm in 1905.

Alice Corkran still had his old notebooks with their sketches when she died.

Alice Corkran was educated at home and studied art in Paris until the family had to leave Paris following some reverses of fortune.

Alice Corkran's fame rested in particular on her first novel Bessie Lang as well as her other novel Down the Snow Stairs.

Alice Corkran edited the Bairn's Annual from 1885 to 1890 and contributed articles to it at the same time.

Alice Corkran remained involved with the magazine, not only as a contributor, but as the founder and guiding spirit of the Guild of Service and Good Fellowship, one of the leading features of the magazine.

The guild was founded in April 1900 by Alice Corkran and charged a nominal subscription to members.

In 1902, after leaving the editorship of The Girl's Realm, Alice Corkran was a literary reviewer in the Daily News and was contributing articles to various London papers.

Alice Corkran had been in declining health for some time and in her final years she depended largely on her daughter Alice's care.

Alice Corkran's father died in 1884 and her parents are buried together at Brompton Cemetery.

Alice Corkran had a health scare in October 1892 when she was run over by a brougham in Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London.

Alice Corkran's leg was badly injured and she suffered from shock, and recovered only slowly, so that it was the end of the year before she could resume literary work.

In 1901, Alice Corkran was living in Mecklenburgh Square with her sister Harriet and Richard Whiteing.

Alice Corkran was still living with Whiteing at the time of the 1911 census where she described her position in the house as inmate, which the enumerator corrected to the approved term boarder.

The dates of the deaths of the two brothers is uncertain, but Whiteing says that Alice Corkran was the last remaining survivor of her branch of the family, and one death notice referred to her being the last surviving child of her late father.

Alice Corkran was plagued by poverty in her later years and suffered from declining health.

Alice Corkran died suddenly, but not unexpectedly, on 2 February 1916.