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.
Black and white, head-and-shoulders photograph of Frances Hodgson Burnett, turning to the viewer's right. Her hair is short and she is wearing a pale dress with short sleeves and a double string of pearls around her neck.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Ella Hepworth Dixon
In a chapter devoted to Some Women Writers she praises, among others, Sheila Kaye-Smith , Margaret Kennedy (particularly for The Constant Nymph), Elizabeth von Arnim , and Violet Hunt . Authors who receive whole...
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...
Textual Production Marghanita Laski
ML dedicated to Mary Lascelles (who had taught her at Somerville College ) her bio- critical work on three Victorian writers for children: Mrs. Ewing , Mrs. Molesworth , and Mrs. Hodgson Burnett.
Laski, Marghanita. Mrs. Ewing, Mrs. Molesworth, and Mrs. Hodgson Burnett. A. Barker.
prelims
Maxwell, Mrs. “Ladies of Quality”. Times Literary Supplement, No. 2528, p. 438.
438
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 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...
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 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 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.
Ellis, Stewart Marsh. Wilkie Collins, Le Fanu, and Others. Books for Libraries Press.
287
In fact CR had...
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 Marghanita Laski
ML edited and introduced Victorian Tales for Girls, which includes tales by Mary Louisa Molesworth , Charlotte Yonge , Frances Hodgson Burnett , Juliana Ewing , Annie Fellows-Johnston , and one anonymous author.
Ewing, Juliana Horatia et al. Victorian Tales for Girls. Editor Laski, Marghanita, Pilot Press.
prelims
Textual Features G. B. Stern
A listing of books which GBS feels to be particularly her own includes Jane Austen , Edna St Vincent Millay , Dorothy Parker , and Rebecca West 's essays. But most of the women authors...
Textual Features Sarah Josepha Hale
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...
Publishing Frances Browne
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)...
Publishing Ella Wheeler Wilcox
During her early years Ella Wheeler also wrote crude and uninspired prose tales for the lesser magazines and weeklies such as Peterson's Magazine.
Wilcox, Ella Wheeler. The Worlds and I. Gay and Hancock.
77
She was elated when one of them appeared alongside something...

Timeline

1910: British-born American Frances Hodgson Burnett...

Writing climate item

1910

British-born American Frances Hodgson Burnett published a novel which she originally intended for adults, but which became a children's classic: The Secret Garden.

March 1911: The Idler monthly (launched as a sixpenny...

Writing climate item

March 1911

The Idlermonthly (launched as a sixpenny magazine in 1892) ceased publication.

Texts

Burnett, Frances Hodgson. A Lady of Quality. C. Scribner’s Sons, 1896.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson, and Ethel Franklin Betts. A Little Princess. C. Scribner’s Sons, 1905.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. Dolly. Porter and Coates, 1877.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. Haworth’s. C. Scribner’s Sons, 1879.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. In Connection with the De Willoughby Claim. C. Scribner’s Sons, 1899.
Ewing, Juliana Horatia et al. “Introduction”. Victorian Tales for Girls, edited by Marghanita Laski, Pilot Press, 1947, pp. 7-12.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson, and Reginald B. Birch. Little Lord Fauntleroy. C. Scribner’s Sons, 1886.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. Robin. Frederick A. Stokes, 1922.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. Sara Crewe. C. Scribner’s Sons, 1888.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. That Lass o’ Lowrie’s. C. Scribner’s Sons, 1877.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. The Head of the House of Coombe. Frederick A. Stokes, 1922.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson, and C. D. Williams. The Making of a Marchioness. Frederick A. Stokes, 1901.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson, and Reginald B. Birch. The One I Knew Best of All. C. Scribner’s Sons, 1893.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson, and Charles Robinson. The Secret Garden. Heinemann, 1911.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson, and Graham Rust. The Secret Garden. Michael Joseph, 1986.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. The Shuttle. Frederick A. Stokes, 1907.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson, and Frances Browne. “The Story of The Lost Fairy Book”. Granny’s Wonderful Chair, ACC Children’s Classics, 1999, pp. 5-8.
Ewing, Juliana Horatia et al. Victorian Tales for Girls. Editor Laski, Marghanita, Pilot Press, 1947.