Dinah Craik

Dinah Maria Craik (; born Dinah Maria Mulock, often credited as Miss Mulock or Mrs. Craik; 20 April 1826 – 12 October 1887) was an English novelist and poet. She wrote the novel, John Halifax, Gentleman, which presents the mid-Victorian ideals of English middle-class life.

Life Mulock was born on 20 April 1826, at Stoke-upon-Trent to Dinah and Thomas Mulock and raised in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, where her father was minister of a small independent nonconformist congregation. Her childhood and early youth were affected by her father's mental health and his unsettled fortunes, but she gained a good education from various quarters and felt called to be a writer. In 1839 she was in London assisting her mother and studying design and languages. Her mother died in 1845 and her father lost interest in his children.

American composer Emily Bruce Roelofson used Craik's text for her song "O Heart, My Heart".