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29th October 2024 by

Frances Hodgson Burnett – centenary

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) was born in Cheetham Hill, Manchester. Sadly her father, an ironmonger with his own business in Deansgate, died when Frances was four years old and while her mother was pregnant with her fifth child.

From her grandmother, who bought her books, Frances learned to love reading, in particular her first book, The Flower Book, which had coloured illustrations and poems.

Frances’s uncle, William Boond, ran a thriving dry goods store in Tennessee and the family moved there in 1865 but more troubles were to follow as Frances’s uncle lost much of his business after the end of the Civil War and was unable to provide for them, resulting in a number of moves and straitening of circumstances for the family.

Once her first story was published, before she was 18, she spent the rest of her life as a working writer. By 1869, she had earned enough to move the family into a better home in Knoxville.

With two unhappy marriages, the death of a son and numerous relocations across England, Paris and the US, in 1907 she returned permanently to the States, having a home built on Long Island and maintaining the summer home on Long Island and a winter home in Bermuda.

Frances’s best-known works are Little Lord Fauntleroy (1885-6), A Little Princess (1905) and the Secret Garden (1911).

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