Sarah Doudney (15 January 1841, Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire – 8 December 1926, Oxford)Charlotte Mitchell, "Doudney, Sarah (1841–1926)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, May 2005, retrieved 11 July 2008 was an English fiction writer and poet. She is best known for her children's literature and her hymns.

Family and life Doudney's father ran a candle and soap-making business. One of her uncles was the evangelical clergyman David Alfred Doudney, editor of The Gospel Magazine and Old Jonathan. Doudney was educated at a school for French girls, and started to write poetry and prose as a child. "The Lesson of the Water-Mill", written when she was 15 and published in the Anglican Churchman's Family Magazine (1864), became a well-known song in Britain and the United States. Doudney continued to live with her parents near Catherington until she was 30.

Doudney's first novel, Under Grey Walls, appeared in 1871. Success came with her third, Archie's Old Desk, in 1872. In the 1881 census Doudney described herself as a "Writer for Monthly Journals". She contributed poetry and fiction to periodicals that included Dickens's All the Year Round, the Churchman's Shilling Magazine, the Religious Tract Society's Girl's Own Paper, The Sunday Magazine, Good Words and The Quiver. By 1891, when she described herself in the census as a novelist, she had written about 35 novels. Most of these were written for young girls, but she also wrote some for adults. Many of them end tragically, but look forward to happiness after death. Anna Cavaye, or, The Ugly Princess tells of a dying child comforted by knowing she has brought other people together.Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy (eds): The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. (London, Batsford, 1990).

Doudney's hymns include The Christian's Good Night, set by Ira D. Sankey in 1884 and sung at Charles Spurgeon's funeral.

Sarah's mother Lucy Doudney died in 1891 and her father in 1893. Sarah Doudney then moved to Oxford, where she died in December 1926.Web Archive biography: .

Selected works

The Angels of Christmas, 1870 Harvest Hymn, 1870 Psalms of Life, 1871. A collection of 60 hymns. Under Gray Walls, 1871 Faith Harrowby: Or the Smugglers' Cave, 1871 Archie's Old Desk, 1872 Self-pleasing. A New Year's Address to Senior Scholars, 1872 The Beautiful Island, and Other Stories (the other stories by other authors), 1872 Loser and Gainer, 1873 Janet Darney. A Tale of Fisher-life in Thale Bay, 1873 Wave upon Wave, 1873 Marion's Three Crowns, 1873 The Cottage in the Woods, and other tales, 1874 Miss Irving's Bible, 1875 Oliver's Oath, and How He Kept It, 1875 The Great Salterns, 1875 Nothing But Leaves, 1875 The Pilot's Daughters, 1875 Brave Seth, 1877 Stories of Girlhood, or the Brook and the River, 1877 Monksbury College: A Tale of Schoolgirl Life, 1878 Faith's Revenge, 1879 The Scarlet Satin Petticoat, 1879 While It Is Day. A New Year's Address to Senior Scholars, 1879 A Story of Crossport, and Other Stories, 1879 Old Anthony's Secret, and Other Stories, 1879 Stepping Stones, a Story of our Inner Life, 1880 Strangers Yet. A Story, 1880 A Child of the Precinct, 1880 Stepping-Stones: A Story of Our Inner Life, 1880 Anna Cavaye; or, the Ugly Princess, 1882 Michaelmas Daisy. A Young Girl's Story, 1882 What's in a Name?, 1883 Miss Stepney's Fortune, 1883 Nelly Channell, 1883 A Woman's Glory, 1883 The Strength of Her Youth, 1884 A Long Lane with a Turning, 1884 When We Two Parted. A Tale, c. 1884 Prudence Winterburn, 1885 Who Is the Enemy? and How He Was Discovered. A tale, 1886 When We Were Girls Together, 1886 The Missing Rubies, 1887 A Son of the Morning, 1887 Thy Heart's Desire. A Story of Girls' Lives, 1888 Miss Willowburn's Offer, 1888 The Vicar of Redcross; Or, Till Death Us Do Part, 1888 Under False Colours, 1889 Where the Dew Falls in London. A Story of a Sanctuary, 1889 Christmas Angels (in verse), 1890 The Family Difficulty: The Story of a Young Samaritan, 1891 Godiva Durleigh, 1891 Where Two Ways Meet, etc., 1891 Drifting Leaves (poems), 1892 My Message (poem), 1892 Voices in the Starlight (poem), 1892 The Love-Dream of Gatty Fenning. A Tale, 1892 Through Pain to Peace, 1892 A Romance Of Lincoln's Inn, 1893 Violets for Faithfulness (verse), 1893 Louie's Married Life, 1894 Katherine's Keys. A Tale, 1896 A Vanished Hand, 1896 Bitter and Sweet. A Story, 1896 Pilgrims of the Night, 1897 , Girl's Own Paper, XX, 1898 Lady Dye's Reparation, 1901 Silent Strings, 1904 One of the Few, 1904 A Cluster of Roses, 1906 Shadow and Shine, 1906 When My Ship Comes Home, 1906 Thistle-Down My Wish for Thee (single poem) The Lesson of the Water Mill (with Bond Andrews)Additional titles, corrections etc. from Doudney's ODNB entry; booksellers' catalogues; the British Library Integrated Catalogue: Retrieved 6 December 2011; Web Archive list: .

See also English women hymnwriters (18th–19th centuries)

Eliza Sibbald Alderson Sarah Bache Charlotte Alington Barnard Charlotte Elliott Ada R. Habershon Katherine Hankey Frances Ridley Havergal Maria Grace Saffery Anne Steele Emily Taylor Emily H. Woodmansee

References

External links

Biography at the Cyber Hymnal