COVE

On 12 May 1828, Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born as Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti. His parents were Gabriele Pasquale Giuseppe Rossetti, an Italian émigré scholar, and Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori (the sister of John William Polidori). Rossetti would go on to form the influential literary and artistic group, The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Image: Portrait of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: albumen print. This photograph, from 7 October 1863, was reproduced as the frontispiece of: Rossetti, William Michael, Dante Gabriel Rossetti as Designer and Writer. London: Cassell and Company, 1898.

Macmillan and Company, one of the most important publishing houses of the Victorian period, was founded in Cambridge in 1843 by the Scottish brothers Alexander and Daniel Macmillan. As befitted a university town and its clientele, the publishing house focused on academic literature in its first ten years, before branching into fiction. After Daniel died, Alexander moved the headquarters of the firm to London in 1858 and continued to expand the range of literature he published. Macmillan's Magazine, a shilling monthly, was launched in 1859. In the 1860s Macmillan published illustrated books by two Victorian authors who have retained readerships up to the present. Macmillan published both 19th century illustrated editions of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market: the 1862 edition, illustrated by the poet's brother Dante Gabriel; and the 1893 edition, illustrated by Laurence Housman. Macmillan also brought out both of Lewis Carroll's Alice books, illustrated by John Tenniel. 

Dante Gabriel Rossetti died on 9 April 1882 (Easter Sunday) at Birchington-on-Sea, Kent, where he was also buried at All Saints' Church. Image: Birchington All Saints Church from the southwest (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license).

Christina Rossetti died on 29 December 1894 and was buried in the Rossetti family plot, alongside her parents and Elizabeth Siddal.