About Nora Chesson
Lived 1871 – 1906 (aged 35). Nora Chesson was a British poet, writer and journalist.
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Nora Chesson (2 January 1871 – 14 April 1906) was an English journalist and poet. She won for herself a distinct celebrity as a contributor to most of the English periodicals and newspapers of her time.
Biography Eleanor Jane Hopper was born in Exeter, on 2 January 1871. Her father, Capt. Harman Baillie Hopper, was Irish. She was a participant in the Irish literary movement of the 1890s, having some influence on W. B. Yeats in particular with her Ballads in Prose (1894).
Her career as an author of poetry and prose began in 1887 when she was not quite seventeen years of age. She went on to increase her literary reputation until her death. In some of her poems, there was an atmosphere of melancholy which might seem as if it cast upon them the shadow of a too-early death. She provided the English translation to Thadgh O'Donoghue's libretto for the Irish opera Muirgheis (1903) by Thomas O'Brien Butler (1861–1915).
In 1901, she married the English man of letters Wilfrid Hugh Chesson (1870–1953). She died from heart failure at her home in North Sheen on 14 April 1906. They had three children: Ann Caroline Spry (b. 1902), Dermot (b. 1904), and Dagmar (b. 1906). Five volumes of her selected poems were published that year by Alston Rivers, of London, which included a short biographical note by the editor, her husband, and an introductory appreciation by Ford Madox Hueffer.
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Important facts
People in Nora Chesson's life
Named in this biography and alive at the same time
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped Nora Chesson's
Frequently asked questions
Who was Nora Chesson?
English poet, journalist (1871-1906)
When was Nora Chesson born?
Nora Chesson was born on 2 January 1871 in Exeter.
When did Nora Chesson die?
Nora Chesson died on 14 April 1906 in North Sheen.
What was Nora Chesson's occupation?
Nora Chesson was a poet, writer and journalist.
What nationality was Nora Chesson?
Nora Chesson was British.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Nora Chesson. https://biography.guide/nora-chesson/
MLA: "Nora Chesson." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/nora-chesson/.
Chicago: "Nora Chesson." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/nora-chesson/.
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