I want to say something about what OPEN means. According to the original definition of Writing Essentials that group owner Jennifer Hodge originally set, the group description included:
Fiction, Poetry, Memoir, Creative Non-Fiction, Essays about Writing or Publshing, Screenplays, Playwriting.
This is what I mean by OPEN.
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Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849 - 1924) was born in Manchester, England, and, after her father died in 1854, Frances endured the poverty of Victorian slums of the type often typified in the writings of Charles Dickens until she moved to Knoxville, Tennessee in 1865.
Though her life in Tennessee was still lived in poverty, she had the fresh country air to breathe instead of the dirty air of industrial Manchester, England. An uncle of Frances' requested she move to Knoxville.
After Frances' mother died in 1867, Frances, at the tender age of 18, was the oldest of four children and became head of her family.
To support her family, she turned to writing, with publication coming quickly. Her first story was published in Godey's Lady's Book, and was soon published regularly in Scribner's Monthly, Peterson's Ladies Magazine and Harper's Bazaar. Frances was noted for her gift in combining the realism of working-class life with a romantic plot.
She is best known for her children's stories, in particular, The Secret Garden, A Little Princess and Little Lord Fauntleroy.
Frances Hodgson Burnett, in an undated photo, public domain.
In 1873, she married Dr. Swan Burnett and soon moved to Washington, D.C., where his practice was located. In 1877, Frances published her first novel, That Lass o' Lowrie, a novel of life in Lancashire, England.
Other novels soon followed her first one, including Haworth, Louisiana A Fair Barbarian, and a play, Esmeralda, which was written with William Gillette.
In 1886, she published Little Lord Fauntleroy, which was originally intended as a book solely for children, but many mothers enjoyed the story, which featured the young boy with long, curly hair, (based on her son Vivian) and velvet suits with lace collars (based on the attire of Oscar Wilde.)
The book sold more than 500,000 copies - a huge number for that era, and which would translate into millions of copies by today's standards. She became a household name.
In 1888, she won an English landmark lawsuit over the dramatic rights to Little Lord Fauntleroy, which established a precedent soon incorporated into British copyright law.
However, clouds soon appeared over the sunny life young Frances had set out to create and she divorced Dr. Burdett in 1898, remarrying Stephen Townsend in 1900, her business manager. This marriage lasted two years.
Her last work was The Head of the House of Coombe , which was published in Canada in 1922.
The Secret Garden, book cover, 1911 edition. Public domain.
This image is in the public domain in the US, as it was first published before January 1, 1923 and also because it is part of Project Gutenberg, which is not copyrighted in the US. Check your country for copyright laws.
In 1893, Frances published a memoir of her youth, The One I Knew Best of All, which included mention that she had discovered a secret garden when she was staying at Great Maytham Hall. Frances became a US citizen in 1905 and returned to the US to live in 1909.
Her son, Lionel, died of tuberculosis in 1890, and Frances became a practitioner of Christian Science and dabbed in to Spiritualism, which helped her through the grief of losing her young son.
She lived the rest of her days in New York and is buried in Roslyn Cemetary, next to her son, Vivian. A life-size effigy of Lionel stands at their feet.
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The Secret Garden: The Story
Mary Lennox is a sickly girl born in India of wealthy British parents. Her parents cast her off into the care of a servant woman who is told to keep Mary out of sight so that Mary's sallow complexion does not upset her parents.
A cholera outbreak soon follows this and Mary is sent to the country manor of her uncle, Mr. Craven, in Yorkshire to live.
Her uncle has left the manor, as he travels incessantly, mourning the premature death years earlier of his beautiful young wife. The housekeeper, Mrs. Medlock looks after Mary. The only one who exhibits any interest in Mary is the chambermaid, Martha, who tells Mary about a secret, locked garden. Mary is playing with a dog who accidentally dug up the long-lost key to the garden.
Mary enters the garden to discover that some roses have survived, though many seem lifeless. She gains assistance from Martha's brother in obtaining gardening tools to help her nurse the flowers back to life.
Since Mary now spends a lot of time in the fresh outdoors, her complexion is now enlivened with a new-found healthy glow and she loses the former sallow complexion of which her parents were so ashamed. Mary also loses her unpleasant demeanor.
Mary accidentally discovers her first cousin, Colin, a young boy who had never learned to walk. Mary's uncle has a mild case of hunchback and her uncle was morbidly worried his son, Colin, would suffer the same affliction; Mr. Craven's worries transferred to Colin as a fear of learning to walk.
Colin never liked strangers staring at him and the servants kept Mary and Colin from knowing about each other's presence. But Mary and Colin are drawn to each other, and Mary exhibits a deep understanding of Colin.
In time, Colin begins to become jealous that Mary spends to much time outdoors in the garden instead of indoors with him. He has one of his notable tantrums, and Mary stands her ground, and tries to slap reason into Colin, by slapping him in the face. To everyone's surprise, this tactic of Mary worked, and it is agreed that Colin will join Mary and the others in the garden, in a wheelchair.
As the garden begins to revive, so does Colin. No adults are aware that the children have been meeting in the supposedly long-locked garden, with the exception of Ben, the gardener, who accidentally discovers them one day.
Mr. Craven has a dream in which his late wife appears to him and beseeches him to return to the garden. Mr. Craven then makes a sudden, unannounced return to England from his travels on the continent, surprising everybody.
Colin, meanwhile, had made a promise to himself that when his father returned, that he would demonstrate to his father that he truly could walk and run like any other boy.
Mr. Craven arrives while the children are playing outdoors. He finds himself drawn to the secret garden and is astonished to hear children's voices emanating from the walled garden.
He is further astonished to find young Colin not only walking but running – and winning in the running races against the other children. Colin tells his father everything, and he and his father reunite, to the amazement of the servants. Mr. Craven is happy once again.Source: Wikipedia
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Previous Wednesday's Writing Essentials, author bio/lit reviews:
Wednesday Writing Essentials - History of Memorial Day
Wednesday Writing Essentials: History of Mother's Day - 100 Years of Mother's Day
Wednesday Writing Essentials: Gertrude Chandler - The Boxcar Children
Wednesday Writing Essentials - Stuart Little - So much more than just another mouse
Wednesday Writing Essentials: SOME PIG - Wilbur lives on and Charlotte A. Cavatica, too
Wednesday Writing Essentials: Tomie dePaola
Wednesday Writing Essentials: 'Love You Forever' sells on and on and readers cry on and on
Wednesday Writing Essentials: Make Way for Ducklings
Shakespeare's Spring
Dr. Seuss
Wednesday Writing Essentials: Beatrix Potter lives on
Wednesday Writing Essentials: Richard Brautigan lives on
New Years Around the World
Holidays Around the World
Wednesday Writing Essentials: Winter Solstice, Holidays Around the World
Dickens' A Christmas Carol
JM Barrie
A.A. Milne
Wednesday Writing Essentials: Thanksgiving, Harvest Festivals and Family/Food Holidays Around the World
Norman Mailer
Wednesday Writing Essentials: Using Your Senses - Pavarotti Lives on in Paul Potts
Wednesday Writing Essentials: Flannery O'Connor Lives On
Dostoevksy/Raskolnikov: Guilty, Guilty Guilty
Harper Lee
Anne Sexton
Tennessee Williams' Kowalski's Stellaaa
Sylvia Plath
Virginia Woolf
Jane Austen
Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener
Bronte's Wuthering Heights
Wednesday Writing Essentials: JD Salinger
Faulkner
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To learn more about Gather's Writing Essential channel, please view these articles:
Writing Essentials by Pam Johnston VP Community Engagement
Meet the Writing Editors by Pam Johnston
Official Description of Writing Essentials by Jennifer Hodge, Gather Editorial Team
To join Writing Essentials, click HERE
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About Kathryn
Kathryn Esplin Oleski kathryneo.gather.com
Kathryn Esplin-Oleski was raised in Salt Lake City, but moved to Montreal with her family, where she finished high school and college. Kathryn has a BA in English Literature from McGill University and a Master of Science in Journalism (MSJ) from the Medill School of Journalism, at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Ill.
Kathryn's articles have appeared in The Montreal Gazette, The Globe and Mail, and Kathryn covered Utah politics at Medill from Washington, D.C. for The Ogden Standard-Examiner. She has also written on business, computers, health, living, education, arts, travel and books.
She freelanced for numerous computer/business publications, including a stringer story for Newsweek magazine on graft in the music industry.
Kathryn worked as a news/feature reporter, and Features Editor for International Data Group (IDG) for several years, and then continued to writing freelance computer/business articles.
Kathryn copyedited a technical book, Raggett on HTML 4.0, Second Edition, published by Addison-Wesley Longman, New York and London, 1998.
Kathryn's fiction, The Quill Speaks, was published in Pieceworks, in 2003.
Kathryn was a finalist in the Gather-Borders-Mitch Albom contest: "Times My Mom Stood Up for Me:" My Mom Stood Up for Me During the Last Days of My Childhood.
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Copyright © 2007, 2008, Kathryn Esplin-Oleski
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Comments: 65
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Yes, if you like a story with a happy ending (and why not?) then this is a classic.
Bob, that is so special - thank you for sharing that.
Thanks.
Thanks all.
thank you all.
Andre
Please check out my other content.
(I'm trying for the cash option this month):
My Articles
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jasper, thank you.
I liked this story when I was a child. I was introduced to it by a black and white movie version (in which a bird digs up the key, when it thinks the string attached to the buried key is a worm). This story became a bonding moment between my mother and I as it was a favorite story of hers, from her childhood.
Thanks for discussing this, Kathryn.
That book cover is so pleasingly striking, even though it's almost one hundred years old.
10
Peace --
Thanks for enjoying.
Carlie, I love to research the author bios - we have often read the books but not known much of the life of these authors.
Thanks for enjoying.
I recently found "Return to the Secret Garden," by Susan Moody (Signet, 1998), at a thrift store. Apparently it was first published as "Misselthwaite," perhaps in the UK. I haven't read it yet. It purports to be about the grown-up lives of the characters.
Good work. I read The Secret Garden as a young girl, and it no doubt inspired me to write.