Frances Hodgson Burnett

Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (24 November 1849 – 29 October 1924) was an English-American novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children's novels Little Lord Fauntleroy (published in 1885–1886), A Little Princess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911).

Frances Eliza Hodgson was born in Cheetham, England. After her father died in 1852, the family fell on straitened circumstances and in 1865 immigrated to the United States, settling near Knoxville, Tennessee. There Frances began writing to help earn money for the family, publishing stories in magazines from the age of 19. In 1870, her mother died, and in 1872 Frances married Swan Burnett, who became a medical doctor. The Burnetts lived for two years in Paris, where their two sons were born, before returning to the United States to live in Washington, D.C., Burnett then began to write novels, the first of which (That Lass o' Lowrie's), was published to good reviews. Little Lord Fauntleroy was published in 1886 and made her a popular writer of children's fiction, although her romantic adult novels written in the 1890s were also popular. She wrote and helped to produce stage versions of Little Lord Fauntleroy and A Little Princess.

Burnett enjoyed socializing and lived a lavish lifestyle. Beginning in the 1880s, she began to travel to England frequently and in the 1890s bought a home there where she wrote The Secret Garden. Her oldest son, Lionel, died of tuberculosis in 1890, which caused a relapse of the depression she had struggled with for much of her life. She divorced Swan Burnett in 1898, married Stephen Townsend in 1900, and divorced him in 1902. A few years later she settled in Nassau County, Long Island, where she died in 1924 and is buried in Roslyn Cemetery.

In 1936 a memorial sculpture by Bessie Potter Vonnoh was erected in her honour in Central Park's Conservatory Garden. The statue depicts her two famous Secret Garden characters, Mary and Dickon.

That Lass O' Lowrie's
Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Lady of Quality
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Robin
Frances Hodgson Burnett
My robin
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Theo: A Sprightly Love Story
Frances Hodgson Burnett
In the Closed Room
Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Making of a Marchioness
Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Methods of Lady Walderhurst
C. D. Williams, Frances Hodgson Burnett
That Lass O'Lowrie's
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Granny's Wonderful Chair
Frances Browne, Frances Hodgson Burnett
Little Saint Elizabeth and Other Stories. [New York-1890]
Frances Hodgson Burnett, Reginald B. Birch
The Dawn of To-Morrow
Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Fair Barbarian
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Louisiana
Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Pretty Sister of José
C. S. Reinhart, Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Land of the Blue Flower
Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Land of the Blue Flower
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Surly Tim and other stories
Frances Hodgson Burnett
A fair barbarian
Frances Hodgson Burnett
A fair barbarian
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Giovanni and the other
Frances Hodgson Burnett
The making of a marchioness
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Surly Tim, and other stories
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Little Lord Fauntleroy
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Little Lord Fauntleroy
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Louisiana
Frances Hodgson Burnett
The dawn of a to-morrow
Frances Hodgson Burnett
The dawn of a to-morrow
Frances Hodgson Burnett
The dawn of a to-morrow
Frances Hodgson Burnett
The land of the blue flower
Frances Hodgson Burnett
The land of the blue flower
Frances Hodgson Burnett
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