Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett's Biography

Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett was born in Manchester, England, in 1849. When she was sixteen, her family went to the USA, and made their home in Knoxville, Tennessee. There, she began to write stories for magazines, because her family was poor and needed the money. She married in 1873, but went on writing, and her first novel, That Lass o’ Lowrie’s, came out in 1877. After that came more stories for adults and children, but in 1886 she wrote Little Lord Fauntleroy, and this book made her famous. Her next famous book was Sara Crewe (1888), and this came out as a longer story called A Little Princess in 1905. It was made into a film in 1939, with Shirley Temple as Sara, and another successful film came out in 1995. There has also been a television film of the story.

Frances Hodgson Burnett was a very popular writer in her time. She often came back to visit England, but she died in the USA in 1924, in a beautiful house on Long Island.