Francis Hodgson Burnett

In class next week we will be discussing The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett. I thought this was a good opportunity to recognize Hodgson for her works and literary successes.

Francis Hodgson Burnett was an English-American writer and is famous for her children's stories. She was born in 1849 with the name Frances Eliza Hodgson in Cheetham Hill Manchester. Due the harsh times in her childhood due to the death of her father's death, Burnett emigrated to Knoxville, Tennesee in 1865. The move, however, did not sweep the family out of poverty. When her mother died in 1867, Burnett was forced to raise her four younger brothers and sister at the tender age of 18, and she eventually turned to writing for support. She ended up writing for Godey's, Scriber's Monthly, Peterson's Ladies Magazine, and Harper's Bazaar.

Burnett moved to Washington D.C. in 1873 after her marriage to Dr. Swan Burnett. Burnett's literary success came just after her marriage. Her works consisted of That Lass o'Lowrie's (1877), Haworth's (1879), Lousiana (1880), A Fair Barbarian (1881), and Through One Administration (1883), Esmerelda (1881), and the Little Lord Faulteroy (1886). It was with her story of Lord Faulteroy that won Burnett large appeal. It was supposed to represent a children's story, but it seemed to a favorite with mothers as well. New Fashions also emerged after the publishing of the story. Long curls, velvet suis, and lace collars.

Burnett's later works included Little Princess, The Lady of Quality, The Secret Garden, The Lost Prince, The One I Know Best of All. After these literary sucesses, Burnett became to deal with Spiritualiam that carried her into World War I. The result was her novella called The White People that dealt with what happens after death.

Burnett died in Plandome, New York in 1924 where she lived the last seventeen years of her life.