Frances Hodgson Burnett

Frances Hodgson Burnett, born on November twenty-fourth, eighteen forty-nine, in Cheetham, Manchester, England, was a distinguished British-American novelist and playwright. She is celebrated for her enchanting children's novels, including the beloved classics Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Little Princess, and The Secret Garden. Her literary journey began at the tender age of nineteen, driven by the need to support her family after emigrating to the United States in eighteen sixty-five.

After the death of her father in eighteen fifty-three, Frances's family faced financial hardships, prompting their move to New Market, Tennessee. Following the loss of her mother in eighteen seventy, she married Swan Burnett, a medical doctor, in eighteen seventy-three. The couple welcomed two sons, Lionel and Vivian, and spent a brief period in Paris before returning to Washington, D.C. It was here that Frances published her first novel, That Lass o' Lowrie's, which garnered positive reviews and marked the beginning of her successful writing career.

Burnett's breakthrough came with the publication of Little Lord Fauntleroy in eighteen eighty-six, establishing her as a prominent figure in children's literature. Despite her success in this genre, she also wrote popular romantic novels during the 1890s and adapted her works for the stage. Throughout the 1880s, she frequently traveled to England, eventually purchasing a home there, where she penned The Secret Garden.

Tragedy struck in eighteen ninety when her elder son, Lionel, succumbed to tuberculosis, leading to a relapse of her long-standing depression. Frances's personal life saw further upheaval with her divorce from Swan in eighteen ninety-eight and a brief marriage to Stephen Townsend, which ended in eighteen hundred and two. In her later years, she settled in Nassau County, New York, where she passed away in nineteen twenty-four and was laid to rest in Roslyn Cemetery.

In nineteen thirty-six, a memorial sculpture by Bessie Potter Vonnoh was unveiled in Central Park's Conservatory Garden, honoring Burnett's legacy and depicting her iconic characters, Mary and Dickon, from The Secret Garden.