Marianne Farningham (1834–1909)

Marianne Farningham was born Mary Ann Hearn in the English village of Farningham, from which she derived her pen name. She later used a second pseudonym, Eva Hope. She loved reading as a child, but had a sporadic education. Her parents were devout Baptists who would not send her to a national school. She did spend a few years at a school in nearby Eynesford, which was interrupted when she was 12 by her mother's death. The local Baptist pastor, founder of the weekly newspaper Christian World in 1857, encouraged her to contribute poems and stories. For 10 years she also worked as a teacher, but in 1867 became a full-time employee of the Christian World and also edited the Sunday School Times. She published collected editions of her weekly prose pieces, poetry, and serialized fiction. Some of her hymns became highly popular and were anthologized. In the late 1870s and early 1880s, she gave a series of well-attended lectures. She received regular correspondence from readers, and became a household name. From the proceeds of her writing and lecturing she was able to buy a house in Northampton, which she shared with her father, several nieces, and some companions. Athough she was not an overt feminist, she encouraged women to earn their own living and later advocated for some women to have the vote.