Early Life
Frances Eliza Hodgson was born November 24, 1849 in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, England. Her father died when she was three and her mother Eliza took over his ironmongery. As a little girl, Frances loved writing little stories in notebooks and telling tales to anyone who would listen. When she was sixteen, the ironmongery went bankrupt, and Eliza decided take the family to join her brother in America. So in 1865 Frances, along with her mother, two older brothers and two younger sisters,
moved to Knoxville Tennesse.
Writing Career
Frances was always making up stories, so it was natural that when her family needed some extra finnancial support she began writing to help pay the bills. Some of her first stories such as "Miss Caruthers' Engagement" appeared in Godey’s Lady’s Book, a magazine for women, in 1868. By the time her mother died and the family's finnancial burden was put almost entirely on Frances' shoulders, she was earning a regular income from her writings. She married Swann Burnett in 1873 and would have two sons Lionel and Vivian. Beginning in 1876 with The Lass O’Lowries Frances published a series of novels and even co-wrote a play. None of her works however, recieved critical acclaim until Little Lord Fauntleroy was published in 1886. She went on to write her most famous books A Little Princess (1905) and The Secret Garden (1911).
The Secret Garden
Ever since she was a little girl living in England, Frances loved gardens. Whenever possible, she would find a spot of nature and play, read, or write. It's no surprise then that one of her most famous novels would take place in a garden. The particular garden in which the story of Mary, Dickon, and Colin was written was the walled garden at her home, Maytham Hall. When she first moved to Maytham, the garden was neglected and overgrown. Frances soon added roses and grasses to make it alive once again.
Various people in her life added inspiration to Frances' later works. As a girl, Frances had a friend named Emma who spoke with a broad Lancashire accent. Frances was entranced by the sounds and words of this different dialect. This would inspire her to use these in her books, which is very apparent in The Secret Garden.
With a legacy of over fifty books as well as numerous plays, short stories, and poems behind her, Frances Hodgson Burnett died on October 29, 1924. She is not gone though, for she will always be remembered through her timeless tales, especially that of Miss Mary Lennox.
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Hodgson_Burnett
http://www.online-literature.com/burnett/
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2041.Frances_Hodgson_Burnett
Collins, Carolyn and Eriksson, Christina Inside the Secret Garden. New York: HarperCollins, 2001
I had no idea the author of secret gardens was female! Did she face any prejudices because of being a successful female writer and the time period in which she lived?
ReplyDeleteI think by then people were more accepting of women authors. Jane Austen's books, while not bestsellers yet, had been in steady publication for a while, and I can only assume that female authors were becoming much more common. The mere fact that Burnett wrote for a women's magazine says a lot about the attitudes at the time:) Times were changing!
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