User:Rich Farmbrough/DNB/I/s/Isa Knox

Mrs. Isa, Born Craig Knox|1831|1903| Mrs. ISA, born Craig Knox (born 1831 died 1903), poet, only child of John Craig, hosier and glover, was born in Edinburgh, 17 October 1831. In childhood she lost both parents, and was reared by her grandmother, leaving school in her tenth year. A close study of standard English authors developed literary tastes; and, after contributing verses to the 'Scotsman' with the signature 'Isa', she was regularly employed on the paper in 1853. Coming to London in 1857 she was appointed secretary to the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, and held the position till she married, in May 1866, her cousin, John Knox, an iron merchant of London. In 1858 she won with a resonant ode a prize of £50 offered at the Crystal Palace for a centenary poem on Burns. There were 621 candidates, among them being Frederic William Henry Myers [q. v. Suppl. I], Gerald Massey [q. v. Suppl. II], and Arthur Joseph Munby [q. v. Suppl. II]. After her marriage she contributed occasionally to 'Fraser', 'Good Words', and the 'Quiver', edited the 'Argosy' for a short time, and published some volumes of poems and juvenile histories. She died at Brockley, Suffolk, on December 1903. In verse Mrs. Knox produced nothing that surpassed the Burns ode. Her first volume, 'Poems by Isa' (1866), showed some promise, and some lyric Quality appeared in 'Poems: an Offering to Lancashire' (1863); 'Duchess Agnes, a Drama and other Poems' (1864); and 'Songs of Consolation' (1874). Dr. A. H. Japp edited a 'Selection from Mrs. Knox's Poems' in 1892. Of Mrs. Knox's prose work 'The Essence of Slavery' (1863) summarised F. A. Kemble's 'Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation', and 'Esther West' (1870; 6th edition 1884) was a well-constructed story. Mrs. Knox's 'Little Folk's History of England' (1872) reached its 30th thousand in 1899, and the author adapted from it a successful 'Easy History for Upper Standards' (1884). 'Tales on the Parables', two series, appeared in 1872-7.

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