Martin Farquar Tupper was born on the 17th of July 1810, in Devonshire Place, London. He was the eldest child of Dr. Martin Tupper, an esteemed doctor from an old Guernsey family, and his wife Ellin Devis Marris, the daughter of landscape painter Robert Marris (1749–1827) and granddaughter of Arthur Devis.
He would become one of the most widely-read English-language authors of his day with the poetry collection Proverbial Philosophy, which was a bestseller in the United Kingdom and North America for several decades.
Tupper found great success in Victorian Britain at a relatively early age, with a second series of the poetry collection Proverbial Philosophy in 1842.
On 26 November 1835, of the same year Tupper married his first cousin Isabella Devis, daughter of Arthur William Devis, in St Pancras Church, having proposed to her before leaving for university seven years previously. They had eight children over the next 30 years.
Over the course of the author's lifetime it is estimated that between one quarter and half a million copies were sold in England, and over 1.5 million in the United States.
Tupper was already a favourite poet of Queen Victoria, and in June 1857, having written sonnets for each of the engaged couple Victoria, Princess Royal and Prince Frederick, was granted the honour of being "summoned to Buckingham Palace, to be received by the Queen herself and Prince Albert, and to present special copies of 'Proverbial Philosophy' with his own hands to the young betrothed."
By the time of his return from his second American tour on 16 April 1877, Tupper had fallen into obscurity in his home country. His attempts to publish a complete collection of his works failed; each of the 26 publishers he approached had declined.
In November 1886 Tupper suffered an illness of several days which robbed him of the ability to read and write. He remained in a fragile state for his remaining three years, being cared for by his children, never learning that during that period Albury House had been foreclosed by the Duke of Northumberland. Eventually he died, on 29 November 1889, and was buried in Albury churchyard in the same grave as his wife and son Martin Charles Selwyn, with an epitaph reading "He being dead yet speaketh".
Martin Farquar Tupper was born on the 17th of July 1810, in Devonshire Place, London. He was the eldest child of Dr. Martin Tupper, an esteemed doctor from an old Guernsey family, and his wife Ellin Devis Marris, the daughter of landscape painter Robert Marris (1749–1827) and granddaughter of Arthur Devis.
He would become one of the most widely-read English-language authors of his day with the poetry collection Proverbial Philosophy, which was a bestseller in the United Kingdom and North America for several decades.
Tupper found great success in Victorian Britain at a relatively early age, with a second series of the poetry collection Proverbial Philosophy in 1842.
On 26 November 1835, of the same year Tupper married his first cousin Isabella Devis, daughter of Arthur William Devis, in St Pancras Church, having proposed to her before leaving for university seven years previously. They had eight children over the next 30 years.
Over the course of the author's lifetime it is estimated that between one quarter and half a million copies were sold in England, and over 1.5 million in the United States.
Tupper was already a favourite poet of Queen Victoria, and in June 1857, having written sonnets for each of the engaged couple Victoria, Princess Royal and Prince Frederick, was granted the honour of being "summoned to Buckingham Palace, to be received by the Queen herself and Prince Albert, and to present special copies of 'Proverbial Philosophy' with his own hands to the young betrothed."
By the time of his return from his second American tour on 16 April 1877, Tupper had fallen into obscurity in his home country. His attempts to publish a complete collection of his works failed; each of the 26 publishers he approached had declined.
In November 1886 Tupper suffered an illness of several days which robbed him of the ability to read and write. He remained in a fragile state for his remaining three years, being cared for by his children, never learning that during that period Albury House had been foreclosed by the Duke of Northumberland. Eventually he died, on 29 November 1889, and was buried in Albury churchyard in the same grave as his wife and son Martin Charles Selwyn, with an epitaph reading "He being dead yet speaketh".
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"He being dead yet speaketh"
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