Bessie Craigmyle

Elizabeth "Bessie" Craigmyle (4 September 1863 – 28 February 1933) was a Scottish poet, translator, and schoolteacher, who lived in Aberdeen and taught in Wales. Her poems continue to receive scholarly attention, in part for their themes of women's intimacy in nineteenth-century Scotland.

Early life and education Craigmyle was born in Aberdeen, one of the five daughters of Francis Craigmyle and Emma Bearham Craigmyle. Her father was a schoolmaster, who retired when she was still a child. He was able to devote his energies to his daughters' education, providing an extensive library and a number of greenhouses in the family home for their use. She was brought up in the Presbyterian faith.

Career After qualifying as school teacher, Craigmyle taught in the Dr Williams School, Dolgellau, She was a lecturer at Bishop Otter's College in Chichester. After 1886 she lived in Aberdeen, where she taught at St Mary's School; her students were the children of British parents working in India. and a member of the Women’s Liberal Association. A Handful of Pansies (1888, dedicated to Margaret Dale) Goethe's Faust, with some of the minor poems (1889, editor) German Ballads (1892, editor and translator) Craigmyle's poem "Cleopatra" was included in Sonnets of this Century (1887), edited by William Sharp. and "Under Deep Apple Boughs" and "A Wasted Day" appeared in Elizabeth Amelia Sharp's Women's Voices (1887). "My Bookcase" was chosen for Book-song, An Anthology of Poems for Books and Bookmen by Modern Authors (1893), edited by Joseph Gleeson White.

Personal life and legacy In her teens, Craigmyle met and fell in love with Margaret (Maggie) Dale, another daughter of a schoolmaster. Craigmyle wrote love poems addressed to Dale, and dedicated both of her books of poetry to Dale. They shared an ambition to become doctors, and Dale accepted a position at St. Andrew's Scots School in Buenos Aires. While in Argentina she was engaged to be married, but then died. When news of this reached Craigmyle, she suffered from a breakdown. She traveled to Florence with another woman, to convalesce. Craigmyle died at the age of 69, from burns sustained in an accident on the 46th anniversary of Margaret Dale's death in 1933. "The First Kiss", her translation from Heine, was set to music in 1939 by Katherine Bothwell Thomson.