Evelyn Whitaker - Background

Background

Whitaker was born in Herne Bay, Kent and died in Hammersmith, London at the age of 84. She remained a spinster all her life often living with one or more of her sisters. All her works were published anonymously and the identity of the author of Tip Cat was not revealed until after her death. Her nineteen novels and several shorter stories were issued by multiple publishers in Britain, Australia, Canada and the United States from 1879-1915. Many of these editions were beautifully bound and illustrated. The novels were intended for children and young adults but were also widely read by adults, particularly women.

Evelyn Whitaker's writing style was praised as "a study in English for its conciseness, simplicity, and elegance" and Tip Cat was adopted as a text book for German students studying English.Her stories were described as "charming, pure, and wholesome," full of "humor and pathos."

For more than a decade after Evelyn Whitaker's death, her two most popular titles, Miss Toosey's Mission and Laddie, continued to be reissued as gift books. Such little novels with religious or moral themes were given as Sunday School prizes, often as attendance awards. Such books where generally inexpensively made with inferior paper, ink, and illustrations but with attractive bindings. The ornate bindings made up half the production costs.