Eliza Cook (1812–89) was one of the most popular poets in Great Britain from the late 1830s to the 1860s. She was also the editor of
Eliza Cook's Journal
(1849–54), a radical weekly aimed primarily at women and the literate working classes. In the 1840s, Cook was known for her iconoclastic “masculine” dress and her romantic friendship with American actress Charlotte Cushman.