The Secret Garden: A Young Reader's Edition of the Classic Story

Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote for children and adults, publishing both plays and novels. She was born in Manchester, England, on November 24, 1849. Her father, who owned a furniture store, died when she was only four years old. Her mother struggled to keep the family business running while trying to raise five children. Finally, because of the failing Manchester economy, the family sold the store and immigrated to the United States. In 1865 they settled just outside of Knoxville, Tennessee. Hoping to offset her family's continuing financial troubles, Burnett began to submit her stories to women's magazines. She was immediately successful. In the late 1860s her stories were published in nearly every popular American magazine. Burnett helped to support her family with income from the sale of her stories, even saving enough to finance a trip back to England, where she stayed for over a year. In 1879, Burnett published her first stories for children; two of her most popular are A Little Princess and The Secret Garden. In contrast to an extremely successful career, Burnett's personal life held many challenges. Her son Lionel was diagnosed with tuberculosis at age 15, from which he never recovered. His death inspired several stories about dead or dying children. Burnett lived her later years on Long Island, New York. She died in 1924. Author and illustrator Shirley Hughes was born near Liverpool, U. K. on July 16, 1927. She studied drawing and costume design at Liverpool School of Art and the Ruskin School of Drawing in Oxford. At first, she was an illustrator of other author's works, but in 1960 she published Lucy and Tom's Day, which was the first book she wrote and illustrated. Since then, she has written over 50 books and has illustrated 200 children's books. In 2015, she wrote a young adult novel entitled, Hero on a Bicycle. She won the Kate Greenaway Medal for Dogger in 1977, the Eleanor Farjeon Award for distinguished services to children's literature in 1984, and the OBE for services to children's literature in 1998. Hughes was given two Honorary Degrees, one from the University of Liverpool in 2004, and the other from the University of Chester in 2012. In 2017, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Shirley Hughes died at her home in London on February 25, 2022. She was 94.