Frances Hugdson Burnett

1849-1924. Writer of children's books.

The years 1850-1910 are said to be the golden age of children's literature in England. Poetry, novels and adventure stories were written for children during that time. Many children's books were written "to give children spontaneous pleasure, and not primarily to teach them" (Hunt 32).

So do also the works by Frances Hodgson Burnett. She was born in November 1849 in Manchester and died in October 1924 in New York. She wrote over twenty children's novels. Her most famous book is Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886). Some people call it "the best version of the Cinderella story in the modern idiom that exists" (Pape 381). Little Lord Fauntleroy was Burnett's fourth children's book. It was first published in America's best known children's paper St. Nicolas Magazine in Winter 1885. In October 1886 it was available as book. Around 43,000 copies were sold in the first year, and it became one of the greatest books until 1950. One million copies were sold in English. The novel was translated 18 times into German between 1910 and 1970. Frances Hogdson Burnett earned over $100,000 for this novel. Little Lord Fauntleroy had a strong influence on American culture; mothers started to dress their children like the main character, the little lord. They were dressed "in a black velvet suit, with a lace collar" (Pape 382). The English Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone admired the book; the American poet and critic James Russell Lowell was fascinated, too. He is alleged to have said, "It does not to say merely that Little Lord Fauntleroy was a great success, it caused a public delirium of joy" (Pape 382).

Sources

• Burnett Hodgson, Frances: Little Lord Fauntleroy, OUP 2009.
• Hunt, Peter: International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, Routledge: New York 1996.
• Pape, Walter: Das literarische Kinderbuch. Studien zur Entstehung und Typologie, New York 1981.