Adelaide Procter

This story is about a woman who wanted to succeed for her talents, not her connections. Novelist Charles Dickens was close friends with the Procter family. Father Brian was a lawyer by day and a poet by night. Their home became a haven for London’s literary set, and the Procter children were steeped in the writing scene. Years later, in 1854, Dickens visited the Procter home one evening and couldn’t stop raving about an obscure poet, Mary Berwick, whose extraordinary compositions he had been publishing in his literary journal for two years. He longed to meet her and discover the source of her literary prowess. Little did he know he was in her company! The next night, Adelaide Procter (1825-1864) revealed to Dickens that Mary Berwick was her pseudonym. Impressive! She wanted to be judged on her own merits and not “for papa’s sake.” She became Dickens’ most published poet. Seventy-three of her poems appeared in Dickens’ periodicals, and she was the only poet featured in Dickens’ Christmas editions. Her popularity was second only to Alfred Lord Tennyson. She became active in the Catholic church in mid-career and began writing on religious subjects. Some of her readers urged her to return to lighter, whimsical verses, but she would have none of it. Adelaide took up the plight of working women and homeless families. Many of her poems expressed as prayers, such as the one that follows here, became popular hymns in 19th-century England: