Author
Anna Sewell
1820-1878
Anna Sewell was an English novelist whose only book, Black Beauty, told from a horse's point of view, was written to encourage kindness towards horses.
Anna Sewell was born on 30 March 1820 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, into a Quaker family, and moved to London as a baby after her father's drapery partnership broke up. She and her brother Philip were taught at home by their mother, Mary, an author of popular children's books. On visits to her grandparents in Buxton, near Norwich, she learnt to ride and drive horses. At fourteen she slipped running home from school in the rain and sprained her ankle. It never healed, and walking was difficult for the rest of her life.
By 1839 a chronic illness had left her tired, weak and in pain, and she remained an invalid for the rest of her life. She never married and always lived with her parents, joining her mother in charitable work and editing her mother's books.
In 1871 she became seriously ill and was mostly confined to a bed or sofa. That November she wrote in her diary, "I am writing the life of a horse". She dictated parts of the book to her mother, and finished it in pencil notes that her mother copied out. Black Beauty (1877) was one of the first English novels written from an animal's point of view. It was aimed at the working men and boys who cared for horses, and condemned cruel practices such as the bearing rein.
She died on 25 April 1878, aged 58, having lived just long enough to see the book's early success. By 1995 an estimated 40 million copies had been sold.
Sources: wikipedia.org
