Eliza Cook

Eliza Cook (1818–1889) was a London-born poet whose popular, plain-spoken verse made her one of the best-known women poets of the 1840s. Her first collection, Melaia and Other Poems, appeared in 1838, and “The Old Arm-Chair” became one of her best-loved songs.

From 1849 to 1854 she edited Eliza Cook's Journal, a weekly paper for working readers. Three of her lyrics appear in Women Poets of the Victorian Era (1890).