When Eliza Cook died on 23 September 1889, The Times (London) noted that many readers would be surprised to learn "that she was alive but yesterday." Thirty years before, the obituary in The Times continues, her name had been "a household word." However, ill health had caused her to put down her pen and lead a more retired life; thus she had faded from public view. From the 1830s to the 1850s Cook's verses attracted favorable reviews and a wide readership in Great Britain and the United States and were well represented in the popular annuals of the day such as Forget Me Not, The Keepsake of Friendship, The Young Ladies' Offering; or Gems of Prose and Poetry, and The Illustrated Ladies' Keepsake.

Cook came from humble and inauspicious beginnings. She was born on 24 December 1818, the youngest of eleven children, to Joseph Cook, a London brazier and tinsmith. When she...