Coventry Patmore was born 1823 July 23, in Woodford, Essex. His father Peter George Patmore encouraged his literary talents and introduced him to leading literary figures. Under his father's tutelage, Coventry Patmore published his first poetry collection, Poems, in 1844. In 1846, He obtained an appointment as assistant librarian in the British Museum. He retained this post until 1866.

Patmore married his first wife, Emily Augusta Andrews, in 1847. Patmore's most renowned poem, The Angel in the House, was published in 1858. While scholars maintain that Patmore's wife was not the basis for Honoria, the heroine of The Angel in the House, Patmore declared that it was Emily "by whom and for whom" he became a poet. Emily died in 1862 at the age of 38, just as Patmore was arranging to publish "The Victories of Love", the fourth part of The Angel in the House. Patmore withdrew from the literary world following his wife's death and eventually traveled to Rome in 1864.

In Rome, Patmore met Marianne Caroline Byles, a Catholic heiress who would become his second wife. Patmore converted to Catholicism in May 1864 and the two were married in 1865. Following his marriage, Patmore published The Unknown Eros and Other Odes (1878) and Amelia (1878). Marianne's fortune allowed Patmore to retire from the British Museum and to concentrate on his poetry.

The second Mrs. Patmore died suddenly 1880 April 12. Following her death and the publication of a complete edition of poetry in 1879, Patmore devoted his remaining career to the study of mystical theology and to work as a prose writer. In 1881, Patmore married Harriet Robson, a longtime family friend.

As a prose writer, Patmore contributed more than a hundred articles to St. James's Gazette, and his major prose works include Principle in Art (1889), Religio Poetae (1893), and The Rod, the Root and the Flower (1895). Throughout his literary career, Patmore emphasized the marriage bond. He described himself as a "psychologist of love" who saw married love as the forerunner of divine love. Patmore died 1896 November 26. He had six children from his first marriage including his eldest daughter, Emily Honoria, and sons Milnes and Tennyson; and a son, Francis Joseph, by his third marriage.

Sources:

"Coventry Patmore," Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 98: Modern British Essayists, FirstSeries. Robert Beum, Editor. The Gale Group (1990). pp.261-269.