ÅPARA çPAR@ ` WTEXT ` IBurnett, Frances Eliza Hodgson1849╨1924authorBorn in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, England, on November 24, 1849, Frances Hodgson grew up in increasingly straitened circumstances after the death of her father in 1854. In 1865 the family emigrated to the United States and settled in New Market, near Knoxville, Tennessee, where the promise of support from a maternal uncle failed to materialize. Frances helped support the family in various ways and in 1868 managed to place a story with Godey╒s Lady╒s Book. Within a few years Hodgson was being published regularly in Godey╒s, Peterson╒s Ladies╒ Magazine, Scribner╒s Monthly, and Harper╒s. In September 1873, after a year╒s visit to England, she married Dr. Swan Moses Burnett of New Market. During 1875╨1876 they lived in Paris, where Dr. Burnett took advanced medical training. Shortly after their return to Tennessee Burnett published her first novel, That Lass o╒ Lowrie╒s, 1877, which had previously been serialized in Scribner╒s. Like her short stories, the book combined a remarkable gift for realistic detail in portraying scenes of working-class life╤unusual in that day╤with a plot consisting of the most romantic and improbable of turns. It had a large sale in England and America and ended the Burnetts╒ financial problems. They moved to Washington, D.C., where she produced the novels Haworth╒s, 1879, Louisiana, 1880, A Fair Barbarian, 1881, and Through One Administration, 1883, and a play, Esmeralda, 1881, written with William Gillette, that was a great Broadway hit with Annie Russell in the title role. In 1886 Burnett╒s most famous and successful book appeared. ╤First serialized in St. Nicholas magazine, Little Lord Fauntleroy was intended as a children╒s book, but it had its greatest appeal to mothers, many of whom over the next decades plagued their sons with the long curls and lace and velvet outfits favored by the book╒s hero. Little Lord Fauntleroy sold over half a million copies, and Burnett╒s income was increased by her dramatized version, which quickly became a repertory standard on the order of Uncle Tom╒s Cabin. In 1888 she won a lawsuit in England over the dramatic rights to Little Lord Fauntleroy, establishing a precedent that was incorporated into British copyright law in 1911.Later books, all in her vein of unremittingly sentimental romanticism, included Sara Crewe, 1888, The Pretty Sister of JosÄ, 1889, Little Saint Elizabeth, 1890, Two Little Pilgrims╒ Progress, 1895, A Lady of Quality, 1896, The Making of a Marchioness, 1900, A Little Princess, 1905, The Shuttle, 1907, The Secret Garden, 1910, The Lost Prince, 1914, and Head of the House of Coombe, 1921. Her plays A Lady of Quality, 1896, and The First Gentleman of Europe, 1897, were also successful in production. In 1893 she published a memoir of her youth, The One I Knew Best of All. From the mid-1890s she lived mainly in England, but in 1909 she built a house in Plandome, Long Island, New York, where she died on October 29, 1924. Her son Vivian Burnett, the model for Little Lord Fauntleroy, wrote a biography of her in 1927 entitled The Romantick Lady. ■styl ` L ! ¬ 5¬ ) 5¬ 1 !I δ !I ■ !I = !I D !I F !I a !I c !I u !I { !I â !I F 5¬ G !I Æ !I º !I ╫ !I ß !I P !I Y !I a !I j !I r !I é !I Ä !I ¿ !I ╝ !I ┼ !I !I ▐ !I 2 5¬ 3 !I à !I æ !I £ !I ▓ !I ä !I Ü !I 4 !I E !I ë !I ƒ !I ⌠ 5¬ ⌡ !I E !I O !I W !I p !I w !I Ä !I û !I │ !I ╗ !I ╠ !I ╘ !I ∩ !I ≈ !I
