Frances Hodgson Burnett

Frances Hodgson Burnett: Beyond the Secret Garden by Angelica Shirley Carpenter and Jean Shirley was in my library pile the other day. It's a biography for children. I knew nothing about the author of two of my childhood favourites  (The Secret Garden and A Little Princess) until I read it. Like Margaret Wise Brown, she was a fascinating woman. Born in Manchester, England, her father died when she was quite young leaving the rest of the family (consisting of her mother, two older brothers and two younger sisters) to descend further and further into poverty. After the end of the Civil War, her uncle suggested they move to Knoxville, Tennessee where he lived. The family did so but remained poverty-stricken until Frances, at the age of 17, started supporting the family with stories she wrote for magazines like Godey's Ladies Book, Scribner's, and Harper's. Before her very first submission she sold wild grapes in order to earn the money to buy paper and postage stamps. Here's her first cover letter:

Sir: I enclose stamps for the return of the accompanying MS [manuscript], "Miss Carruther's Engagement," if you do not find it suitable for publication in your magazine. My object is remuneration.
                                        Yours Respectfully,
                                         F. HODGSON

Frances went on to write over 60 books during her lifetime, most of them romantic potboilers for adults.  She became hugely rich and successful. Her personal transition from a life of extreme poverty to one of great wealth helps to explain one of the most successful aspects of A Little Princess -- the evocative descriptions of Sara's wretched state when she is forced by Miss Minchin to work as a scullery maid and sleep  in a rat-infested garret and of her subsequent joy when the two gentlemen next door sneak in and fix up her room while she is sleeping. I have never read a transformation so perfectly rendered. The reader is Sara, hungry and dirty and huddling in the cold on the street. And then she is Sara, waking up to find herself covered in luxurious silk blankets next to a roaring fire, a merrily boiling tea-kettle, a table of delicious food, and (oh bliss!) a pile of books.

After her marriage to her first husband (whom she later scandalously divorced), Frances moved with him to Washington, D.C. where they lived lavishly, mainly due to her own earnings. She dressed elaborately and entertained a great deal. She also lived apart from her husband for months at a time, living and traveling in Europe. The press hounded her every step of the way.

Little Lord Fauntleroy (which I remember being unimpressed by as a child) was Frances's first book for children. Published in 1886, it earned her more than $100,000.  According to the biography, it was marketed "like a modern movie or television series. Besides clothes, there were Fauntleroy souvenirs -- playing cards, writing paper, toys, perfume, and even chocolate." Frances's model for Fauntleroy was her youngest son, Vivian, whom she dressed like Oscar Wilde in velvet suits. She also styled his hair in long curls. Big surprise -- he had trouble living this down although I suppose he ultimately did. Here are the headlines announcing his death in a boating accident many years after Frances herself had died:

"ORIGINAL 'FAUNTLEROY' DIES IN BOAT AFTER HELPING RESCUE 4 IN SOUND"

"Vivian Burnett, Author's Son Who Devoted Life to Escaping 'Sissified' Role, is Stricken At Helm -- Manoeuvres Yawl to Get 2 Men and 2 Women from Over-turned Craft, Then Collapses."

All in all, my curiosity has been greatly piqued. And so I've added the latest Frances Hodgson Burnett biography for adults to my list: The Unexpected Life of the Author of the Secret Garden by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina.

Comments

[trisha]

Thanks for this post. I think Burnett is often overlooked.

The Gerzina bio is worth reading. Burnett drew heavily on her bicontinental life and relationships in much of her work, including in my favorite Hodgson novel, The Shuttle. It is a potboiler, but an insightful one -- her musings on the power balance between men and women, and the relationship between America and England, are fascinating and still relevant.

[RfP]

Along with "The Secret Garden" and "A Little Princess", I recommend "The Lost Prince".