E. Nesbit

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EN , writing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, was an immensely prolific poet, journalist, novelist, and occasionally a playwright, who is remembered today almost entirely for her enduringly popular story-books for children (which number about forty). Her children's books are highly imaginative and full of fun. They involve their child protagonists in encounters, often magical, with worlds beyond their own: not only in literary, historical, and fantasy encounters, but also in those which raise social and political issues in terms that children can understand. Her writing for adults includes novels, poetry, short stories, plays, magazine contributions and editing, political commentary, and everything that might possibly be undertaken by a hard-up woman of letters.

Milestones

15 August 1858

EN was born at 38 Lower Kennington Lane, Kennington, in South London, the youngest of her family, with three elder siblings and a half-sister living.
Briggs, Julia. A Woman of Passion: The Life of E. Nesbit, 1858-1924. Hutchinson.
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Late 1902

With Five Children and It, one of EN 's best-known children's books, she embarked on another trilogy about a new family of children.
Briggs, Julia. A Woman of Passion: The Life of E. Nesbit, 1858-1924. Hutchinson.
222

By 18 May 1922

EN 's final novel, The Lark, is set in and around a house called Cedar Court, which is modelled on Well Hall at Eltham and her own efforts to make a big, dilapidated house pay its way.
Briggs, Julia. A Woman of Passion: The Life of E. Nesbit, 1858-1924. Hutchinson.
368, 386
TLS Centenary Archive Centenary Archive [1902-2012]. http://www.gale.com/c/the-times-literary-supplement-historical-archive.
1061 (18 May 1922): 326

4 May 1924

EN died. Though her disease mystified her doctors, it now seems clear from her symptoms that she died of lung cancer, after years of heavy smoking.
Briggs, Julia. A Woman of Passion: The Life of E. Nesbit, 1858-1924. Hutchinson.
392-3

Biography

Birth and Family

15 August 1858

EN was born at 38 Lower Kennington Lane, Kennington, in South London, the youngest of her family, with three elder siblings and a half-sister living.
Briggs, Julia. A Woman of Passion: The Life of E. Nesbit, 1858-1924. Hutchinson.
2