“It is good people who make good places.” – Anna Sewell
About Anna Sewell
Anna Sewell (30 March 1820 – 25 April 1878) was an English novelist. She is best known as the author of the 1877 novel Black Beauty, one of the top ten best selling novels for children ever written.
Sewell was born on 30 March 1820 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, into a devoutly Quaker family. The children were largely educated at home by their mother due to a lack of money for schooling.
In 1824, Sewell slipped at home and severely injured her ankle. For the rest of her life she could not stand without a crutch or 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.
Sewell wrote the manuscript of Black Beauty – in the period between 1871 and 1877.
Although the book is now considered a children’s classic, Sewell originally wrote it for those who worked with horses. She said “a special aim [was] to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses”.
She died on 25 April 1878 of hepatitis or tuberculosis. Sewell’s birthplace in Church Plain, Great Yarmouth has been the home to a museum and a tea shop. The house in Old Catton where she wrote Black Beauty is now known as Anna Sewell House.
(Source – Wikipedia)