Overview

Full Product Details

9781611042603

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Anna Mary Sewell was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England into a devoutly Quaker family. Anna Sewell was largely educated at home, When Anna was twelve years old, the family moved to Stoke Newington, where Sewell attended school for the first time. Two years later, however, she slipped while walking home from school and severely injured both of her ankles. Her father took a job in Brighton in 1836, partly in the hope that the climate there would help to cure her. Despite this, and most likely because of mistreatment of her injury, Sewell was lame for the rest of her life and was unable to stand without a crutch or to walk for any length of time. For greater mobility, she frequently used horse-drawn carriages, which contributed to her love of horses and concern for the humane treatment of animals. At about this time, both Anna and her mother left the Society of Friends to join the Church of England, though both remained active in evangelical circles. Her mother expressed her religious faith most noticeably by authoring a series of evangelical children's books, which Anna helped to edit, though all the Sewells, and Mary Sewell's family, the Wrights, engaged in many other good works. While seeking to improve her health at European, Sewell encountered various writers, artists, and philosophers, to which her previous background had not exposed her. Sewell's only published work was Black Beauty, written during 1871 to 1877, after she had moved to Old Catton, a village outside the city of Norwich in Norfolk. During this time her health was declining. She was often so weak that she was confined to her bed and writing was a challenge. She dictated the text to her mother and from 1876 began to write on slips of paper which her mother then transcribed. Sewell sold the novel to local publisher Jarrolds on 24 November 1877, when she was 57 years of age. Although now considered a children's classic, she originally wrote it for those who worked with horses. She said It's a special aim being to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available