Sophie Dixon

Dixon, Sophie, ?—1855

by Benjamin Colbert

Sophie Dixon was probably born in Plymouth and her poetry and prose evince great affection for Dartmoor (Crossing 114). Her first book, by subscription, was Castalian Hours. Poems by Sophie Dixon (1829), with her two travelogues following in 1830 (see below). Her verses continued to appear in newspapers and magazines through the 1840s and she published, posthumously, one other book, Lovel, a Tale of the Olden Time (1858). The prefatory note to Castalian Hours refers to the death of her father and her own subsequent illness delaying publication, while the editor's preface to Lovel attributes her last illness and death to her response to two more family bereavements (Wright 150). Little more of a concrete nature is known about Dixon.

Sources:

Crossing, William. Amid Devonia's Alps; or, Wanderings & Adventures on Dartmoor. London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., 1888. Print.

Dixon, Sophie. Castalian Hours. Poems. London: Longman, Orme, Hurst, Brown, and Green, 1829. Print.

Wright, W. H. Kearley. 'Sophie Dixon'. West-Country Poets: Their Lives and Works. London: Elliot Stock, 1896. 150-51. Print.

[see updates]