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Craig, Isa.

Isa Craig, daughter of a Scottish hosier and golver, was born in Edinburgh, Ocotober 17, 1831.

Her parents died while she was quite young, and thereafter she lived with her grandmother. She attended school until 1840. At an early age she contributed poems, signed "Isa," to various periodicals, and in 1853 was on the staff of the Scotsman, writing literary reviews and articles on social questions. In 1856 her first volume of poems appeared, published by Blackwood of Edinburgh. In 1857 she went to London and acted as secretary of the "National Association for the Promotion of Social Science" until her marriage with her cousin, John Knox. For a time she edited The Argosy, and also contributed to Good Words and the Sunday Magazine. She wrote several volumes of poems, children's books, one drama, and several novels; among the latter were "Mark Warren," her first, "Esther West" (1870), "Peggy Ogilvie's Inheritance" (1880), and "In Duty Bound" (1881). She died in Suffolk at the age of seventy-four, December 23, 1903.

REFERENCES: Allibone, Supplement, II, 962; G. Wilson, Poets and Poetry of Scotland: Alexander H. Japp, "Isa (Cralg) Knox," Magazine of Poetry, VIII, 1896, 213.

Fireside Library. No. 131
Waverley Library (quarto). No. 233

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