Best known work

• The Rhythm of Life, 1893

Other well known work(s)

• Preludes, 1875

Genres

• Poetry
• Journalism
• Biography / Autobiography
• Politics / Philosophy / Essays

Nom de plume

Alice Christiana Gertrude Meynell, Alice Thompson, A.C. Thompson

Social class

Upper class

Parental background

Meynell's father inherited wealth earned through his grandfather's sugar plantations in Jamaica, Meynell's mother was an artist and concert pianist. Meynell and her sister were schooled entirely by their father.

At publication of best known work

• Age: 46
• Marital status: Married
• Number of children: 7

Physical description

Katherine Tynan wrote in The Sketch of her meeting with the poet. Mrs Meynell apparently "looks her poetry" and has an "unforgettable face to which no photograph does justice" Vol 3 Issue 34, Sept 20, 1893). Herbert Gorman describes her as "seemingly tall, certainly exquisite" (New York Times, 8 Sept 1929).

Did you know?

Charles Dickens had reportedly been wildly in love with Alice's mother, Christiana Weller. The TLS claimed Dickens had written the following in "the family album": "I find to my cost that one Weller I lost, Cruel destiny so to arrange it! I love her dear name, which has won me some fame, But Great Heaven how gladly I'd change it" (Issue 1441, Sept 12,1929). Alice wrote an article on Dickens and his illustrators for Century Magazine in Feb 1884.

Additional information

A very brief biog along with links to some of her essays can be found. A more comprehensive account of Meynell's life can be found.