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Frances Hodgson Burnett

THIS very large number of novels credited to the name of Mrs. Burnett includes important studies of life in both countries she has known. "That Lass o' Lowrie's" (1877) and "Haworth's" (1879) are remarkable stories of the English mining districts and of Lancashire manufacturing life. "Through One Administration" (1883), as its name implies, takes her to Washington. Perhaps the most notable of her other stories are "A Lady of Quality" (1896) and "His Grace of Ormonde" (1897), though "Editha's Burglar" and "Sara Crewe" (1888) have achieved a wide reputation.

The book and the play of "Little Lord Fauntleroy" probably spread Mrs. Burnett's name the broadest. It had a prodigious run; the pretty pathos of the story appealed to grown-ups, though it seemed silly twaddle to the innumerable kids who were dragged by fond parents to see it, and was said to be a great nuisance to that one of the author's own children from whom it was drawn. The play of "Esmeralda," done with W. H. Gillette from one of her short stories, ran three years in America. "A Lady of Quality," dramatized with Stephen Townsend (as were other plays), had a considerable run. Mrs. Burnett was born at Cheetham Hill, Manchester, England, November 24, 1849, moving with her family in 1865 to Knoxville, Tenn., where she lived for eight years. She died on October 29, 1924, at Plandome, Long Island, New York.