Primarily self-educated, Dinah helped her mother to run a school in Newcastle-under-Lyme until the family moved to London in 1839. On the death of her mother in 1845, Dinah supported herself through writing, contributing articles, poems and short stories to various journals, including Chambers's Edinburgh Journal. In 1849, she published her first novel, The Ogilvies, which was reasonably successful. Her reputation was cemented with the publication of John Halifax, Gentleman in 1857. A huge success, the book gave Dinah financial independence. In 1865, she married George Lillie Craik, a Glaswegian accountant who eventually became a partner in the Macmillan publishing house, and they eventually settled in Kent after a short time in Glasgow. She received an annual pension of £60 from the Civil List in the early 1860's for her contributions to literature. During the next twenty years, Craik produced many successful novels and some wonderful children's books, placing her at the forefront of women novelists of the 19th century. Her other works include Olive (1850), The Head of the Family (1851), Avillion and Other Tales (1853), Agatha's Husband (1853), A Life for a Life (1859), Mistress and Maid (1862), A Noble Life (1866), Hannah (1871), The Little Lame Prince (1875), Young Mrs. Jardine (1879) and King Arthur: Not a Love Story (1886). |
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