Anna Sewell

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AS 's only published work was the novel Black Beauty, 1877, which received immediate acclaim and has been celebrated both as a key text advocating animal welfare and other social and political causes and as a best-selling classic of children's literature and of writing about horses.

Milestones

30 March 1820

AS was the first of two children born to a Quaker family at 26 Church Plain, Yarmouth, Norfolk.
Khorana, Meena, and Judith Gero John, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 163. Gale Research.
259
Chitty, Susan. The Woman Who Wrote Black Beauty: A Life of Anna Sewell. Hodder and Stoughton.
44
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

6 November 1871

AS first mentioned in her diary that she was at work on her horse novel, Black Beauty; she mentioned it again thereafter, but infrequently.
Khorana, Meena, and Judith Gero John, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 163. Gale Research.
262

24 November 1877

AS published her novel Black Beauty through Jarrold and Sons of London; she sold the copyright to them outright for £20, without making provision for royalties.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Khorana, Meena, and Judith Gero John, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 163. Gale Research.
259, 265

25 April 1878

After several years of worsening health, AS died at home at the White House, Old Catton, Norfolk, of hepatitis or phthisis, only a few months after Black Beauty was published.
Schlueter, Paul, and June Schlueter, editors. An Encyclopedia of British Women Writers. Garland.
406

Biography

Birth and Family

30 March 1820

AS was the first of two children born to a Quaker family at 26 Church Plain, Yarmouth, Norfolk.
Khorana, Meena, and Judith Gero John, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 163. Gale Research.
259
Chitty, Susan. The Woman Who Wrote Black Beauty: A Life of Anna Sewell. Hodder and Stoughton.
44
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.