Frances Hodgson Burnett 1849-1924

Burnett was a well known writer in the Victorian age, whose books for children became best sellers. She was born in Manchester to a business family. In her childhood, the family lost money, after the death of her father. They moved to America, to Tennesee. She liked writing and began to earn some money writing stories... She loved flowers and that led, later to her book The Secret Garden. She grew up partly in Manchester, but had relatives in America who took her in when her family lost its money. Then her uncle's business in Tennessee failed and she was forced to rely on her own resources. She married Swan Burnett, who was training as a doctor, when she was just 22. They spent a couple of years in Paris, where Swan completed his studies. They had two sons, Lionel and Vyvyan, whom she loved and dressed in fancy clothes. They returned to America, and Swan began to make a fair living as a doctor, but they had money problems and Frances continued to write, and earned quite well, but her husband resented her being more successful than him. Tensions built up in her marriage, and she became exhausted with looking after her children, writing and being a literary hostess. In 1884 she wrote her most successful novel, which was Little Lord Fauntleroy, about a child who turns out to be the son of an English lord... While some critics mocked the work, especially the bits about young Cedric wearing velvet suits and having long curls, it sold very well and she was comfortably off. But her elder son Lionel died of TB and her marriage was on a downward slide. She lived partly in England and partly back in America. She and Swan divorced in 1898 - on grounds of desertion by her husband.. but it was a mutual decision. She had met an actor, Stephen Townsend and in her house in England, she moved him in, calling him her secretary. There was gossip about this, and she then married him. But he was much younger than her, and it was clear that he had married her for her money. She soon discovered that the marriage was a big mistake. They did not divorce but it was not at all happy. Another of her better known novels was Sara Crew, also known as The Little Princess. It is a story about a young girl whose father has to go away, and he puts her in a girls' school. Sara then learns that her father has died, and she is left very poor. Her headmistress keeps her but makes her take on the duties of a servant. Sara retains her dignity and shows that she is a "little princess" in character.