Alice Meynell was a remarkable literary figure and personality of the latter half of the nineteenth century and first two decades of the twentieth. An independent woman for her era, Meynell was a leading essayist, an important poet--she was nominated for poet laureate to replace Alfred Austin-literary critic, editor, devoted wife, and loving mother of seven children. Her essays, written on a broad range of subjects, in smooth prose rhythms and confident mastery of form, were enthusiastically received by her contemporaries, and are still highly regarded. Her life and work were shaped by a refined spiritual life which found its roots and growth in Roman Catholicism. This commitment and her work in literature led her to form close friendships with Francis Thompson, Coventry Patmore, G. K. Chesterton, Aubrey de Vere, and Katherine Tynan, writers who had similar literary and religious sensibilities. She was admired as a literary figure...