Image of Charlotte Maria Tucker

Timeline

Lifetime: 1821 - 1893 Passed: ≈ 130 years ago

Title

Writer

Country/Nationality

United Kingdom
Wikipedia

Charlotte Maria Tucker

Charlotte Maria Tucker was a prolific English writer and poet for children and adults, who wrote under the pseudonym A.L.O.E. (a Lady of England). Late in life she spent a period as a volunteer missionary in India, where she died. 

  
Charlotte Tucker was born at Friern Hatch near Friern Barnet, Middlesex, the daughter of Henry St George Tucker (1771/2–1851), twice elected chairman of the British East India Company, and his wife Jane Boswell (died 1869), the daughter of an Edinburgh writer to the signet. The family moved to London in 1822. Her father was the author of Tragedies: 'Harold' and 'Camoens' (London, 1835). 

 

Charlotte had a secular upbringing, and her first writings were poems and plays to amuse the family. In 1847, she took charge of the education of her brother Robert's three children. Her earliest book The Claremont Tales (1852) was, she said, "originally composed for young children under my charge." 

 

The work of Charlotte Tucker as a children's writer was imbued with her Evangelical religious beliefs. Most of her stories were allegories with a clear moral, but she leavened her didacticism with a degree of realism and naturalism. As she explained in an 1851 letter to a publisher, "My position in life renders me independent of any exertions of my own; I pray but for God's blessing upon my attempts to instruct His lambs in the things which concern their everlasting welfare." 

 

Many of her 150 or more titles appeared in magazines before being collected into books. Among her titles were The Rambles of a Rat (1857), Parliament in the Play-Room (1861), Triumph over Midian (1866), A Wreath of Smoke (1871) and Pomegranates from the Punjab (1878). A biography by a fellow children's writer, Agnes Giberne, appeared in 1895. 

 

The proceeds from her writings she often devoted to missionary or charity work. Tucker's contemporaries criticized the strong didacticism in her writing, but her creed was concerned not with original sin but with the chance of improvement for all people and races. Her realistic portrayals of the poor may have drawn on her experience as a workhouse visitor in Marylebone. Titles of hers are still occasionally reissued by publishers specializing in Christian books, including Lamplighter Ministries, an American nonprofit organization headquartered in Mount Morris, New York, best known for its Lamplighter Family Collection series. 

 

Many of Tucker's most interesting stories are set in India. Some were translated into Indian languages. She set out for India in 1875, at the age of 54, having taught herself Hindustani. There she worked as a self-supporting volunteer missionary to Amritsar, Punjab, through the Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society. Three years later she moved to nearby Batala, where she worked in a boys' school and as a teacher of Christian beliefs to native women. She died in Amritsar on 2 December 1893. 

Books by Charlotte Maria Tucker

 The Giant-Killer - or the Battle Which All Must Fight Cover image

The Giant-Killer - or the Battle Which All Must Fight

Fiction Fairy Tale
Family Religion Children's Literature Myths

Ten year old twins. Constantine and Adolphus are chagrined to be shipped off to a private tutor in the country. Their lot appears worse when they meet their host and his family, consisting of a wife, son Aleck (who imagines himself the perfect studen...

Stories of the Wars of the Jews Cover image

Stories of the Wars of the Jews

History
War Crime Faith Devotion Narrative Christianity Antiquity Nation

Stories of the Wars of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus is a historical narrative spanning Jewish history from 586 B.C.E to 70 A.D. There is no history more fraught with interest, or conveying more impo...

The Story Of A Needle Cover image

The Story Of A Needle

Fairy Tale
Children Kindness Struggle Journey Childhood Determination

It follows the journey of a simple needle as it is passed from one person to the next. The story focuses on the adventures and experiences of the needle as it is used to sew clothing and perform other tasks, each time changing the lives of those it...

Spanish Cavalier Cover image

Spanish Cavalier

When his father dies, Lucius Lepine goes to Spain as a clerk. His fellow clerk, Don Aguilera, doesn't come to work one day. Lucius is worried, he has heard rumors of what has happened to Aguilera. What has happened? Can Lucius find out? - Summary by...

Ned Franks, or The Christian's Panoply Cover image

Ned Franks, or The Christian's Panoply

Ned Franks, a one-armed Christian sailor, returns to his sister's home after several years away at sea. She and her son are not Christians, and are cold toward him, viewing him as a hindrance and expense. By his upright, kind behavior and willingne...

Children's Tabernacle; Or, Hand Work and Heart Work Cover image

Children's Tabernacle; Or, Hand Work and Heart Work

Bored with whittling, embroidery and other amusements, five children and their mother set out to build a model of the tabernacle. As the pillars are fashioned and the curtains sewn, the children learn the importance of types in the Old Testament. The...

Haunted Room Cover image

Haunted Room

Mr. Trevor inherits a piece of land in the country called Myst Court, and plans to move there with his three children: Emmie, Bruce, and Vibert. But rumor says that a room in the house that is haunted. Bruce and Mr. Trevor tell Emmie there are no gho...

Precepts in Practice; or, Stories Illustrating the Proverbs Cover image

Precepts in Practice; or, Stories Illustrating the Proverbs

Fifteen short stories that are full of morals and wisdom, warmth and comfort, charm and wit—all inspired by the book of Proverbs. Each of the stories are recapped with perceptive poems. This special collection of tales are sure to influence listeners...

Robbers Cave: a Tale of Italy Cover image

Robbers Cave: a Tale of Italy

Sixteen-year-old Horace Cleveland thinks of nobody but himself. While traveling with his mother across the Calabrian countryside on their way to Saiti, they rest at an inn. There, Horace spots a mysterious improvasitore—a talented musician who create...