Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Frances Hodgson Burnett
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Standard Name: Burnett, Frances Hodgson
Birth Name: Frances Eliza Hodgson
Indexed Name: F. Hodgson
Pseudonym: The Second
Pseudonym: Fannie E. Hodgson
Married Name: Frances Eliza Burnett
Indexed Name: Mrs Fanny Hodgson Burnett
Nickname: Dearest
Nickname: Fluffy
Used Form: F. H. Burnett
Writing during the latter half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, equally at home with both Britain and the USA, with their respective book trades and publishing practices, FHB
began with magazine serials, then industrial novels, romance novels, and historical novels. She is best-remembered for her children's books, between which and her adult fiction the line is blurred rather than distinct. Both a highly professional and a popular writer, she is a remarkably astute commentator on the national characteristics of England and the United States. Her character-drawing (snobs, faithful servants, unspoilt children) is just stereotypical enough for instant appeal, while retaining a surprising capacity for original insight.
The popularity of this work combined with the obscurity of Browne's identity caused many readers to assume that the tales were of ancient, perhaps unknown origin. After Frances Hodgson Burnett
(ignorant of FB
's name)...
Editorial policy was to avoid anything controversial in mainstream politics. The magazine never mentioned the Civil War during the course of the conflict. In contrast to the Ladies' Magazine, the new one had a...
Textual Production
E. Nesbit
Here a new family of children (whose names all begin with C) join forces with several characters from EN
's earlier books. The walled garden of the title suggests Frances Hodgson Burnett
's The Secret...
Textual Production
Noel Streatfeild
NS
stuck with the realistic side of Ballet Shoes when she mined the same seam again in her second children's book, Tennis Shoes, 1937 (in which difficult, obstreperous Nicky Heath wins her success partly...
Textual Production
Laurence Alma-Tadema
On several occasions LAT
wrote or signed letters to the Times, the newspaper of record, on topics of public interest. Her last two such publications took up the cause of individual women. She wrote...
Textual Production
Laurence Alma-Tadema
Given the coincidence of names in LAT
's family, it is hardly surprising that misattributions should have occurred. The British Library Catalogue adds the name of her stepmother, presumably in error, to its listings of...
Textual Production
Nina Bawden
She was depressed by the quality of the books her boys were reading, and said she wanted to give [her] children something that would encourage them to feel they could make a difference to what...
Textual Production
Charlotte Riddell
Furniss quoted with relish her allegedly low opinion of Ellen Wood
, as simply a brute, she throws in bits of religion to slip her fodder down the public throat.
qtd. in
Ellis, Stewart Marsh. Wilkie Collins, Le Fanu, and Others. Books for Libraries Press, 1931.
Laski, Marghanita. Mrs. Ewing, Mrs. Molesworth, and Mrs. Hodgson Burnett. A. Barker, 1950.
prelims
Maxwell, Mrs. “Ladies of Quality”. Times Literary Supplement, No. 2528, 14 July 1950, p. 438.
438
Textual Production
Deborah Moggach
DM
has written a number of TV screenplays, both from her own prose and that of others, and in the form of original scripts, from which several of her novels were expanded. She has adapted...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Jane Francesca Lady Wilde
Irish Leaders and Martyrs, an interesting study in intellectual leadership, touches on the power of writing such as ballads, but does not discuss any women. American Women is an insightful study of historical and...
