Williams, Sarah (1841–1868)

British poet . ariations: Sadie Williams. Born in 1841 in London, England; died on April 25, 1868, in London, England; daughter of a Welsh businessman; educated at Queen's College, London.

Sarah Williams was born in 1841 in London, England, and lived in that city throughout her brief life. The daughter of a transplanted Welsh businessman of some financial means, Williams often credited her father's ethnicity with her poetic nature. An only child, she wasraised under the tutelage of a series of governesses, and eventually enrolled at Queen's College in London, from which she graduated in the early 1860s. She began writing poetry while at Queen's College, and received enough encouragement from Edward Hayes Plumptre, soon to be dean of Wells, to attempt publication. Her first work, Rainbows in Springtide (1866), earned a sum sufficient to encourage Williams to attempt a living from her poetry. She continued her writing and pursuit of various academic interests, even donating half the earnings from her poetry to London's poor. While Williams' works are little read today except for their historical value, they were reasonably popular at the time they were written, and consist mainly of children's verses and religious writings. In addition to Rainbows in Springtide, her other major published work is Twilight Hours: A Legacy of Verse, a commemorative anthology published shortly after her untimely death in 1868.

sources:

Kunitz, Stanley J., and Howard Haycraft, eds. British Authors of the Nineteenth Century. NY: H.W. Wilson, 1936.

Pamela Shelton , freelance writer, Avon, Connecticut