Lifespan: 1836-1907
Nationality: English
Genres:
Types of Work: Novels, poetry
Contemporaries:
Other Names: Anna Louisa Coghill
Style:
Bio: Anna Louisa Walker was born on June 23, 1836, in Staffordshire, England to Robert and Anna Walker. Her father, a civil engineer, moved the family to Pointe-Levy, Lower Canada in 1853, where he worked for the Grand Trunk Railroad. In 1858, Anna Louisa opened a private girl's school in collaboration with two of her sisters, Frances and Isabella. Their deaths, however, forced her to close the school after only a few years.
Anna's first published works were poems that featured in newspapers and periodicals during her teenage years. One of her poems, The Night Cometh, was later set to music and published as the hymn, Work, for the night is coming.
About 1864, Anna and her parents returned to England, and Mr. and Mrs. Walker died shortly after. Anna took up residence in the house of her cousin, and fellow novelist, Margaret Oliphant, acting in capacity as her house-keeper. It was Mrs. Oliphant who encouraged Anna to pursue writing fiction, rather than poetry.
Anna's first novel, A Canadian Heroine, was published in 1874. On January 29 1884, she married Harry Coghill, a wealthy widower from Staffordshire, and her final three works were printed under her married name.
Anna died on July 7, 1907, in Bath, England.
Novels:
A Canadian Heroine
Hollywood
Against Her Will
Lady's Holm
Two Rival Lovers
The Trial of Mary Broom