Evelyn Whitaker

Evelyn Whitaker (1844–1929) was an English children's writer, whose work was described as charming, pure and wholesome. She displays strong sensitivity to poverty and to illness. Her books were published anonymously.

Background

Whitaker was born in Herne Bay, Kent, the seventh child of Edward Whitaker (born 1802), a solicitor originally from Bratton, Wiltshire and previously and later of London and Middlesex, and his wife Emily Ann Woolbert (died before 1851). Eleanor attended the Ladies College in Bedford Square, which later developed into Bedford College and became part of the University of London. She died in Hammersmith, now London, at the age of 84, having remained a spinster all her life and lived often with one or more of her sisters.

All Whitaker's works were published anonymously – her identity was not revealed until 1903. Her 19 novels and several shorter stories were issued by multiple publishers in Britain, Australia, Canada and the United States between 1879 and 1915. Many of the editions were beautifully bound and illustrated, while Whitaker's writing style was praised as "a study in English for its conciseness, simplicity, and elegance" and Tip Cat was adopted as a textbook for German students studying English. Her stories were described as "charming, pure, and wholesome", full of "humour and pathos".

For more than a decade after Evelyn Whitaker's death, her two most popular titles, Miss Toosey's Mission and Laddie, continued to be reissued as gift books. Such little novels with religious or moral themes were given as Sunday School prizes, often as attendance awards. Most were inexpensively made in terms of their paper, ink and illustrations, but attractively bound.