Alice Abigail Corkran was an Irish children's literature writer and magazine editor. She was born in France to Irish parents and raised in her mother's literary salon, which provided a stimulating environment. She was a playmate of Robert Browning's elderly father and still had his workbooks when she died. In addition to penning a number of well-received novels, she edited the Bairn's Annual and then The Girl's Realm, founding the magazine's Guild of Service and Good Fellowship, which kept a cot at the Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, among other charity endeavors. Alice Corkran was born in Paris, France, to John Frazer Corkran (1808-1884) and Louisa Walsh (1823-1892). She was the second oldest of five children-three girls and two boys. Her father began his career as a dramatist, and his play, The Painter of Italy, was favorably received at Dublin's Theatre Royal on March 9, 1840, although he had already moved to Paris by then. He worked for both the Morning Herald and the Evening Standard as their Paris reporter. John was in Paris during the 1848 revolution and wrote a book called History of the National Constituent Assembly from May, 1848 (1849), which is still considered the definitive work on the constituent assembly more than 30 years later.