Life Eliza Acton

from modern cookery private families eliza acton (london: longmans, green, reader, , dyer, 1871, page 48)



title page of poems eliza acton (london: longmans, 1826)

acton born in battle, sussex in 1799, eldest of 5 children of elizabeth mercer , john acton, suffolk brewer. family returned ipswich shortly after birth, , eliza raised there. when seventeen, co-founded girls school miss nicholson in claydon, near ipswich. remained open 4 years, until eliza acton left due poor health. spent time in france after this.

after returning england, first collection of poems published in 1826, on theme of unrequited love. book moderately successful, , reprinted few weeks after first issue. subsequently wrote standalone, longer poems, including chronicles of castel framlingham , printed in sudbury chronicle in 1838, , voice of north , written in 1842 on occasion of queen victoria s first visit scotland.

acton s best-known work modern cookery private families first published in 1845. result of several years of research, undertaken @ prompting of longman, had published poems. many of recipes came friends. modern cookery became popular work, appearing in several editions , remaining standard cookery book throughout rest of century. book immensely influential, establishing format modern cookbook writing, listing exact ingredients required each recipe, time needed, , potential problems might arise. novel departure previous cookbooks, less precise.

shortly after publication of modern cookery, acton relocated hampstead, london, worked on next , final book, english bread book (1857). alongside recipes, contained scholarly history of bread-making, included acton s strong opinions on contemporary baking practices. work less successful modern cookery, , reprinted in 1990.

she first recorded user of word spaghetti in english language.

acton, suffered poor health of life, died in 1859, @ age of 59. buried in hampstead.