Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Unexpected Life of the Author of the Secret Garden

"I am the custodian of a gift. It is for me to protect the dignity from the driveling of imbeciles!"Frances Hodgson Burnett a possessor of many rare bestowments including, The Secret Garden A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy spoke these words when an assistant editor dared to critique her work.

Despite this tart response, Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina's biography, Frances Hodgson Burnett The unexpected Life of the Author of The Secret Garden sweetens Mrs. Burnett's character with an unusual generosity and a liberal dose of warmth. Gerzina, an English professor at Barnard college and Columbia University has written an extraordinary biography of Frances Hodgson Burnett a beloved children's author.

Frances was born on November 24, 1849 in Manchester England. During this time Manchester was a manufacture of textiles. The air was often polluted with smoke. Ashes rained from a blackened sky. Frances remembered this English city where "all the human framework of the great dirty city was built about the cotton trade. All the working classes depended upon it for bread, all the middle classes for employment, all the rich for luxury." She soon experienced a different environment when her family moved to New Market Tennessee. How enjoyable it was to run across the lush green earth and smell the clean air. Frances would lie on her back to observe the clouds for long periods of time.

This biography reads like a novel with its many surprises and antidotes. When Frances wrote Little Lord Fauntleroy it sold hundreds of thousands of copies. It also did well worldwide with various translations. Unfortunately, there were hateful accusations that she had plagiarized a tale called Wilfred, written by A. T. Winthrop. This was one of many serious attacks on her career by the press. Even Mark Twain made this caustic comment when he wrote to a friend about her book. "I doubt if Mrs. Burnett knows whence came to her the suggestion to write 'Little Lord Fauntleroy,' but I know' it came to her from reading 'The Prince and the Pauper.' In all my life I have never originated an idea, and neither has she, nor anybody else."