Born on April 20, 1826, Dinah Mulock Craik was an English poet and novelist. She was born at Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, located between Manchester and London. She was an accomplished literary student, writing her first poem "The Party Of Cats" at ten years old, teaching Latin at her mother's school at thirteen years old and having her first published poem when she was sixteen. At twenty years old she took her mother and siblings to London where she supported her family financially with her literary work. Driven by the success of her poetry, Craik expanded into novel writing and wrote The Half-Caste as well as her most popular novel, John Halifax, Gentleman in 1856.

Colbeck, Mabel L., and Tirthankar Bose. "Dinah Maria (Mulock) Craik." Victorian Poets After 1850, edited by William E. Fredeman and Ira Bruce Nadel, Gale, 1985. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 35. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1200002651/LitRC?u=sand82993&sid=bookmark-LitRC&xid=6998955d. Accessed 4 Oct. 2021.