Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) was born and grew up in
Manchester, but her father died when she was three and in 1865 she
emigrated with her mother to Knoxville, Tennessee, where her uncle
had already opened a grocery store. Five years later her mother
died and – like many other women of her time – she began writing
short stories for popular magazines to support her family. Her
first novel, That Lass o' Lowrie's (1877), brought her
instant fame on both sides of the Atlantic.
In 1873 she had married Swan Burnett, a physician, and it was for
the two sons of the marriage that she wrote Little Lord
Fauntleroy, which was first serialized in the children's
monthly magazine St. Nicholas. When published in book form in
October 1886, it went immediately on to the bestseller lists
alongside Tolstoy's War and Peace and Rider Haggard's King
Solomon's Mines. Mrs. Burnett wrote many other novels, for both
children and adults, as well as plays and short stories, but she is
best remembered for The Secret Garden (1911) and A Little
Princess (1905).
Her marriage to Dr. Burnett ended in divorce in 1898 and two years
later she remarried – but, again, the marriage ended, this time in
separation. She became an American citizen in 1905, though she
travelled frequently to Europe. She died at her home on Long Island
a few weeks before her seventy-fifth birthday.
“It is only the exceptional author who can write a book about children with sufficient skill, charm, simplicity, and significance to make it acceptable to both young and old. Mrs. Burnett is one of the few thus gifted.”—The New York Times
"It is only the exceptional author who can write a book about children with sufficient skill, charm, simplicity, and significance to make it acceptable to both young and old. Mrs. Burnett is one of the few thus gifted."-The New York Times
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