Frances Hodgson Burnett

Francis Burnett was an outstanding Anglo-American author on the edge of 19-20th centuries, who devoted herself to children’s’ literature. Many of her books are still popular among kids; especially it might be referred to A Little Princess, adapted for several times during 20th century.

Francis Burnett was born in 1849 in Manchester, England, but due to death of her father at an early age, Francis alongside her mother and four sisters and brothers had to immigrate to the New World. In America, they settled in Tennessee, where Francis started writing. Initially it was only to support a large family, but later he career advanced and her novels gained more and more popularity. Francis Burnett demonstrated literary skills since she was as a child, being a student of a small private school; she recorded written romantic stories in notebooks for kitchen expenses. Being 17 years old, Francis’s first stories were published in local ladies’ journals. The debut was a success. These stories have been noted. Soon one of the leading publishing houses launched the campaign for the first book by Francis Burnett (by the way, at the time she was known as Francis Hodgson).

Peak of literary career occurred in 1880s, when her books were published on a regular basis. While she traveled around the United States and the European continent, her devoted fans enjoyed reading A Little Princess, Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Secret Garden and many others. The reason of such high popularity of wonderful books by Francis Burnett is in the very nature of her literary talent. Writer warmly and tenderly loves own characters. This is her children, and she always tries to arrange their fate, overcoming adversity and evil, enclosing triumph of the good. The touching simplicity, humor, liveliness, light mood accompany all the works by Francis Burnett, which make her readers to empathize with the characters for more than a century.

 In New York Central park locals and foreigners have an opportunity to look at a small monument to heroes of Burnett’s books. According the world of the writer, they were intended to make the world happier. And since the popularity of her books only rises, they in very deed make our world happier.