======================================================================
= E._Nesbit =
======================================================================
Introduction
======================================================================
Edith Nesbit (married name Edith Bland; 15 August 1858 - 4 May 1924)
was an English writer and poet, who published her books for children
and others as E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on more than 60
such books. She was also a political activist and co-founder of the
Fabian Society, a socialist organisation later affiliated to the
Labour Party.
Biography
======================================================================
Nesbit was born in 1858 at 38 Lower Kennington Lane, Kennington,
Surrey (now London), the daughter of an agricultural chemist, John
Collis Nesbit, who died in March 1862, before her fourth birthday. Her
mother was Sarah Green (née Alderton).
The ill health of Edith's sister Mary meant that the family travelled
for some years, living variously in Brighton, Buckinghamshire, France
(Dieppe, Rouen, Paris, Tours, Poitiers, Angoulême, Bordeaux, Arcachon,
Pau, Bagnères-de-Bigorre, and Dinan in Brittany), Spain and Germany.
Mary was engaged in 1871 to the poet Philip Bourke Marston, but later
that year she died of tuberculosis in Normandy.
After Mary's death, Edith and her mother settled for three years at
Halstead Hall, Halstead, north-west Kent, a location that inspired
'The Railway Children', although the distinction has also been claimed
by the Derbyshire town of New Mills.
When Nesbit was 17, the family moved back to Lewisham in south-east
London. There is a Lewisham Council plaque to her at 28 Elswick Road.
In 1877, at the age of 18, Nesbit met the bank clerk Hubert Bland, her
elder by three years. Seven months pregnant, she married Bland on 22
April 1880, but did not initially live with him, as Bland remained
with his mother. Their marriage was tumultuous. Early on, Nesbit found
that another woman, Maggie Doran, who lived with his mother, believed
she was Hubert's fiancée and had also borne him a child. Nesbit's
children by Bland were Paul Cyril Bland (1880-1940), to whom 'The
Railway Children' was dedicated, Mary Iris Bland (1881-1965), who
married John Austin D Phillips in 1907, and Fabian Bland (1885-1900).
A more serious blow came in 1886, when she discovered that her friend
was pregnant by him. She had previously agreed to adopt Hoatson's
child and allow Hoatson to live with her as their housekeeper. After
she discovered the truth, she and her husband quarrelled violently and
she suggested that Hoatson and the baby, Rosamund, should leave; her
husband threatened to leave Edith if she disowned the baby and its
mother. Hoatson remained with them as a housekeeper and secretary and
became pregnant by Bland again 13 years later. Edith again adopted
Hoatson's child, John. Bland's two children by Alice Hoatson, whom
Edith adopted, were Rosamund Edith Nesbit Hamilton, later Bland
(1886-1950), who married Clifford Dyer Sharp on 16 October 1909, and
to whom 'The Book of Dragons' was dedicated, and John Oliver Wentworth
Bland (1899-1946) to whom 'The House of Arden' and 'Five Children and
It' were dedicated. Nesbit's son Fabian died aged 15 after a tonsil
operation; Nesbit felt guilt over this, having fed him shortly before
the general anaesthetic and in then leaving him unattended afterwards,
not realising that he might choke to death on regurgitated food; she
subsequently dedicated several books to him, including 'The Story of
the Treasure Seekers' and its sequels. Nesbit's adopted daughter
Rosamund collaborated with her on 'Cat Tales'.
Nesbit admired the artist and Marxian socialist William Morris. The
couple joined the founders of the Fabian Society in 1884, after which
their son Fabian was named, and jointly edited its journal 'Today'.
Hoatson was its assistant secretary. Nesbit and Bland dallied with the
Social Democratic Federation, but found it too radical. Nesbit was a
prolific lecturer and writer on socialism in the 1880s. She and her
husband co-wrote under the pseudonym "Fabian Bland", However, the
joint work dwindled as her success rose as a children's author. She
was a guest speaker at the London School of Economics, which had been
founded by other Fabian Society members.
Edith lived from 1899 to 1920 at Well Hall, Eltham, in south-east
London, which makes fictional appearances in several of her books,
such as 'The Red House'. From 1911 she kept a second home on the
Sussex Downs at Crowlink, Friston, East Sussex. She and her husband
entertained many friends, colleagues and admirers at Well Hall.
On 20 February 1917, some three years after Bland died, Nesbit married
Thomas "the Skipper" Tucker in Woolwich, where he was captain of the
Woolwich Ferry.
Although she was the family breadwinner and has the father in 'The
Railway Children' declare that "[g]irls are just as clever as boys,
and don’t you forget it!", Nesbit did not champion women's rights.
"She opposed the cause of women’s suffrage--mainly, she claimed,
because women could swing Tory, thus harming the Socialist cause." She
is said to have avoided the literary moralising that characterised the
age. "And, most crucially, both books are constructed from a blueprint
that is also a kind of reënactment of the author’s own childhood: an
idyll torn up at its roots by the exigencies of illness, loss, and
grief."
Towards the end of her life, Nesbit moved first to Crowlink, then with
the Skipper to two conjoined properties which were Royal Flying Corps
buildings, 'Jolly Boat' and 'Long Boat'. Nesbit lived in 'Jolly Boat'
and the Skipper in 'Long Boat'. Nesbit died in 'The Long Boat' at
Jesson, St Mary's Bay, New Romney, Kent, in 1924, probably from lung
cancer (she "smoked incessantly"), and was buried in the churchyard of
St Mary in the Marsh. Her husband Thomas died at the same address on
17 May 1935. Edith's son Paul Bland was an executor of Thomas Tucker's
will.
Career
========
Nesbit's first published works were poems. She was under 20 in March
1878, when the monthly magazine 'Good Words' printed her poem "Under
the Trees". In all she published about 40 books for children,
including novels, storybooks and picture books. Works of William
Shakespeare adapted by her for children
have been translated. She also published almost as many books jointly
with others.
Plagiarism allegation
=======================
In 2011, Nesbit was accused of taking the plot of 'The Railway
Children' from 'The House by the Railway' by Ada J. Graves. 'The
Telegraph' reported that the Graves book had appeared in 1896, nine
years prior to 'The Railway Children', and listed similarities between
them. However, not all sources agree on this finding: Online magazine
'Tor.com' noted that both books had been released in 1906.
Legacy and influence
======================
Nesbit's biographer Julia Briggs names her "the first modern writer
for children", who "helped to reverse the great tradition of
children's literature inaugurated by Lewis Carroll, George MacDonald
and Kenneth Grahame, in turning away from their secondary worlds to
the tough truths to be won from encounters with things-as-they-are,
previously the province of adult novels". Briggs also credits Nesbit
with inventing the children's adventure story. Noël Coward was an
admirer. In a letter to an early biographer, Noel Streatfeild wrote,
"She had an economy of phrase and an unparalleled talent for evoking
hot summer days in the English countryside."
Among Nesbit's best-known books are 'The Story of the Treasure
Seekers' (1899) and 'The Wouldbegoods' (1901), which tell of the
Bastables, a middle-class family fallen on relatively hard times. 'The
Railway Children' is also popularised by a 1970 film version. Gore
Vidal called the time-travel book, 'The Story of the Amulet', one
where "Nesbit's powers of invention are at their best." Her children's
writing also included plays and collections of verse.
Nesbit has been cited as the creator of modern children's fantasy. Her
innovations placed realistic contemporary children in real-world
settings with magical objects (which would now be classed as
contemporary fantasy) and adventures and sometimes travel to fantastic
worlds. This influenced directly or indirectly many later writers,
including P. L. Travers (of 'Mary Poppins'), Edward Eager, Diana Wynne
Jones and J. K. Rowling. C. S. Lewis too paid heed to her in the
'Narnia' series and mentions the Bastable children in 'The Magician's
Nephew', which, in its scenes of Jadis (a.k.a. the White Witch) in
19th century London, borrows from a similar sequences in Nesbit's 'The
Story of the Amulet'.
Use of Nesbit's characters by later writers
=============================================
Science fiction and fantasy writer Michael Moorcock adopted Nesbit's
character of Oswald Bastable for a trilogy of steampunk novels
beginning with 'The Warlord of the Air'.
'Five Children and It' has had a number of continuation novels by
later writers.
Places
========
*Edith Nesbit Walk and cycleway runs along the south side of Well Hall
Pleasaunce in Eltham.
*Lee Green, also in south-east London, has Edith Nesbit Gardens.
*A 200-metre footpath in Grove Park south-east London, between Baring
Road and Reigate Road, is named Railway Children Walk after the novel,
as is one in Oxenhope, a film location on the Keighley and Worth
Valley Railway used in the 1970 film.
*There is a Nesbit Road in St Mary's Bay, Romney Marsh, where Nesbit's
home Long Boat & Jolly Boat stands.
* Nesbit House, a care home at Badgers Mount, Kent, is located near
Halstead Hall where Edith Nesbit lived when she was young.
Other legacy
==============
*Actress Judy Parfitt portrayed Nesbit in the 1972-1973 miniseries
'The Edwardians'
*The Edith Nesbit Society was founded in 1996 with Dame Jacqueline
Wilson as president.
*In 'The Guardian' in 2001, Francis Spufford placed 'The Story of the
Amulet' first on his list of greatest children's books.
*A. S. Byatt's 2009 novel 'The Children's Book' is inspired partly by
Nesbit, who appears as a character along with Kenneth Grahame and J.
M. Barrie.
*Nesbit's life inspired a one-act, one-woman play, 'Larks and Magic',
by Alison Neil, in 2018.
* Several of Nesbit's horror short stories were adapted into the
anthology play 'The Shadow in the Dark' by Oliver Giggins and Ash
Pryce, which also drew on elements of Nesbit's own life and fears
taken from her autobiographical writings. The show premiered at the
Edinburgh Horror Festival in 2023.
* American children's book author Edward Eager considered Nesbit the
best children's author of all time; his books have been compared to
Nesbit's and his characters are often fans of her work.
* 'Woman of Stone', the Christmas Eve 2024 episode of the BBC's 'A
Ghost Story for Christmas' strand, is an adaptation of Nesbit's horror
story 'Man-Size in Marble'. The film, written and directed by Mark
Gatiss, features Celia Imrie as Nesbit.
Biographies
======================================================================
Aside from an episode of the BBC's 'A Ghost Story for Christmas' from
her autobiographical 'Long Ago When I was Young' (published 1966),
Nesbit has been the subject of five biographies.
*Doris Langley Moore 'E. Nesbit', 1933
*Noel Streatfeild, 'Magic and the Magician: E. Nesbit' 'and her
Children’s Books', 1958
*Julia Briggs, 'A Woman of Passion', 1987
*Elisabeth Galvin, 'The Extraordinary Life of E. Nesbit', 2018
*Eleanor Fitzsimons, 'The Life and Loves of E Nesbit', 2019
Bastable series
=================
*1899 'The Story of the Treasure Seekers'
*1901 'The Wouldbegoods'
*1904 'New Treasure Seekers'
Notes
=======
'The Complete History of the Bastable Family' (1928) is a posthumous
omnibus of the three Bastable novels, but does not include the four
stories appearing in the 1905 collection 'Oswald Bastable and Others'.
The Bastables also feature in the 1902 adult novel 'The Red House'.
Few copies of 'The Secret of Kyriels' survive.
Psammead series
=================
*1902 'Five Children and It'
*1904 'The Phoenix and the Carpet'
*1906 'The Story of the Amulet'
House of Arden series
=======================
*1908 'The House of Arden'
*1909 'Harding's Luck'
Other children's novels
=========================
*1906 'The Railway Children'
*1907 'The Enchanted Castle'
*1910 'The Magic City'
*1911 'The Wonderful Garden'
*1913 'Wet Magic'
As Fabian Bland
=================
*'The Prophet's Mantle'. Serialised, 'Weekly Dispatch', 3 August-14
December 1884, published 1889
*'The Hour before Day'. Serialised, 'Weekly Dispatch', 1885
*'Something Wrong'. Serialised, 'Weekly Dispatch', 7 March to 4 July
1886
*'The Marden Mystery' (1896) (rare: few if any copies survive)
*"Psychical Research". 'Longman's Magazine', December 1884
*"The Fabric of a Vision". 'Argosy', March 1885
*"An Angel Unawares". 'Weekly Dispatch', 9 August 1885
*"Desperate Conspirator". 'Weekly Dispatch', 15 May 1887
*"A Pot of Money". 'Weekly Dispatch', 21 August 1887
*"Christmas Roses". 'Weekly Dispatch', 25 December 1887
*"High Social Position". 'Weekly Dispatch', 8 July 1888
*"Mind and Money". 'Weekly Dispatch', 16 September 1888
*"Getting into Society". 'Weekly Dispatch', 30 September 1888
*"A Drama of Exile". 'Weekly Dispatch', 21 October 1888
*"A Pious Fraud". 'Weekly Dispatch', 11 November 1888
*"Her First Appearance". 'Weekly Dispatch', 16 December 1888
*"Which Wins?" 'Murray's Magazine', December 1888
*"Only a Joke". 'Longman's Magazine', August 1889
*"The Golden Girl". 'Weekly Dispatch', 21 December 1890
No pieces yet traced
As E. Nesbit
==============
*1893 'Her Marriage Lines'. Serialised, 'Weekly Dispatch', 1893
*1898 'The Secret of Kyriels'
*1902 'The Red House' (featuring the Bastables from the children's
books featuring them)
*1906 'The Incomplete Amorist'
*1909 'Salome and the Head' (a.k.a. 'The House with No Address')
*1909 'Daphne in Fitzroy Street'
*1911 'Dormant' (a.k.a. 'Rose Royal' in the US)
*1916 'The Incredible Honeymoon'
*1922 'The Lark'
*"Uncle Abraham's Romance". 'Illustrated London News', 26 September
1891
*"The Ebony Frame". 'Longman's Magazine', October 1891
*"Hurst of Hurstcote", 1893
*"The Butler in Bohemia" (by Nesbit and Oswald Barron), , 1894
*"A Strayed Sheep". 'Thetford & Watton Times and People's Weekly
Journal', 2 June 1894 (with Oswald Barron)
*"The Secret of Monsieur Roche Aymon". 'Atalanta Magazine', October
1894 (with Oswald Barron)
*"The Letter in Brown Ink". 'Windsor Magazine', August 1899
*"'Thirteen Ways Home", 1901
*"These Little Ones", 1909
*"The Aunt and the Editor". 'North Star and Farmers' Chronicle', 15
June 1909
*"To the Adventurous", 1923
*"Women and Socialism: from the Middle-Class Point of View".
'Justice', 4 and 11 April 1885
*"Women and Socialism: A Working Woman's Point of View". 'Justice', 25
April 1885
*'Wings and the Child, or The Building of Magic Cities', 1913
*'Long Ago When I Was Young' (originally a serial, 'My School-Days:
Memories of Childhood', in 'Girl's Own Paper' 1896-1897) Originally
appearing as "My School-Days: Memories of Childhood" in 'The Girl's
Own Paper' between October 1896 and September 1897, 'Long Ago When I
Was Young' finally took book form in 1966, some 40 years after
Nesbit's death, with an insightful introduction by Noel Streatfeild
and some two dozen pen-and-ink drawings by Edward Ardizzone. The
twelve chapters reproduce the instalments.
Stories and storybooks for children
=====================================
*1887 'The Pixies Garden'
*1891 "The Pilot", poem, picture book(?),
*1892 'Father Christmas: The Children's Casket of Pictures'
*1894 'Miss Mischief'
*1895 'Tick Tock, Tales of the Clock'
*1895 'Pussy cat'
*1895 'Doggy Tales'
*1896 'The Prince, Two Mice and Some Kitchen-Maids'. Father Christmas:
The Children's Treasury of Pictures and Stories (1892)
*1897 'The Children's Shakespeare'
*1897 'Royal Children of English History'
*1897 'Tales Told in the Twilight' (story included in an anthology)
*1898 'The Book of Dogs'
*1899 'Pussy and Doggy Tales'
*1901 'The Book of Dragons' (stories that appeared in 'The Strand',
1899)
*1901 'Nine Unlikely Tales'
*1902 'The Revolt of the Toys'
*1903 'The Rainbow Queen and Other Stories'
*1903 'Playtime Stories'
*1904 'The Story of Five Rebellious Dolls'
*1904 'Cat Tales' (by Nesbit and her daughter Rosamund E. Nesbit
Bland)
*1905 'Oswald Bastable and Others' (includes four Bastable stories)
*1905 'Pug Peter, King of Mouseland'
*1907 'Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare' (reprint of 'The Children's
Shakespeare', 1895)
*1908 'The Old Nursery Stories'
*1912 'The Magic World'
*1925 'Five of Us--and Madeline' (posthumously assembled and edited by
Rosamund E. Nesbit Bland, containing the title novel and two short
stories perhaps completed by Nesbit)
As E. Bland
=============
*"The Third Drug", 'Strand Magazine', February 1908 (a.k.a. "The Three
Drugs")
Short story collections for adults
====================================
*'Grim Tales' (horror stories), 1893
**"The Ebony Frame", "John Charrington's Wedding", "Uncle Abraham's
Romance", "The Mystery of the Semi-Detached", "From the Dead",
"Man-Size in Marble", "The Mass for the Dead"
*'Something Wrong' (horror stories), 1893
*'In Homespun' (10 stories "written in an English dialect" of South
Kent and Sussex), 1896
*'The Literary Sense' (18 stories), 1903
*'Man and Maid' (10 stories), 1906 (some supernatural stories)
*'Fear' (horror stories), 1910
*'Collected Supernatural Stories', 2000
**"Dormant" ("Rose Royal"), "Man-size in Marble", "The Detective",
"No. 17", "John Charrington's Wedding", "The Blue Rose", "The Haunted
House", "The House With No Address" ("Salome and the Head"), "The
Haunted Inheritance", "The House of Silence", "The Letter in Brown
Ink", "The Shadow", "The New Samson", "The Pavilion"
*'From the Dead: The Complete Weird Stories of E Nesbit', 2005
**"Introduction" (by S. T. Joshi), "John Charrington's Wedding", "The
Ebony Frame", "The Mass for the Dead", "From the Dead", "Uncle
Abraham's Romance", "The Mystery of the Semi-Detached", "Man-Size in
Marble", "Hurst of Hurstcote", "The Power of Darkness", "The Shadow",
"The Head", "The Three Drugs", "In the Dark", "The New Samson",
"Number 17", "The Five Senses", "The Violet Car", "The Haunted House",
"The Pavilion", "From My School-Days", "In the Dark", "The Mummies at
Bordeaux"
*'The Power of Darkness: Tales of Terror', 2006
**"Man-Size in Marble", "Uncle Abraham's Romance", "From the Dead",
"The Three Drugs", "The Violet Car", "John Charrington's Wedding",
"The Pavilion", "Hurst of Hurstcote", "In the Dark", "The Head", "The
Mystery of the Semi-detached", "The Ebony Frame", "The Five Senses",
"The Shadow", "The Power of Darkness", "The Haunted Inheritance", "The
Letter in Brown Ink", "The House of Silence", "The Haunted House",
"The Detective"
* 'Dark Tales in Winter', 2021
** "The Shadow" adapted for stage by Matt Beames and Hannah Torrance.
Poetry
========
*"A Lovers' Petition". 'Good Words', 17 August 1881
*"Absolution". 'Longman's Magazine', August 1882
*"Possibilities". 'Argosy', July 1884
*"Until the Dawn". 'Justice', 21 February 1885
*"Socialist Spring Song". 'Today', June 1885
*"The Dead to the Living". 'Gentleman's Magazine'
*"Waiting". 'Justice', July 1885
*"Two Voices". 'Justice', August 1885
*"1857-1885". 'Justice', 22 August 1885
*"The Wife of All Ages". 'Justice', 18 September 1885
*"The Time of Roses", undated (c. 1890)
*1886 "Lays and Legends"
*1887 "The Lily and the Cross"
*1887 "Justice for Ireland!". Warminster Gazette, 12 March 1887
*1887 "The Ballad of Ferencz Renyi: Hungary, 1848". Longman's
Magazine, April 1887
*1887 "The Message of June". Longman's Magazine, June 1887
*1887 "The Last Envoy"
*1887 "The Star of Bethlehem"
*1887 "Devotional Verses"
*1888 "The Better Part, and Other Poems"
*1888 "Landscape and Song"
*1888 "The Message of the Dove"
*1888 "All Round the Year"
*1888 "Leaves of Life"
*1889 "Corals and Sea Songs"
*1890 "Songs of Two Seasons"
*1892 "Sweet Lavender"
*1892 "Lays and Legends", 2nd ed.
*1895 "Rose Leaves"
*1895 "A Pomander of Verse"
*1898 "Songs of Love and Empire"
*1901 "To Wish You Every Joy"
*1905 "The Rainbow and the Rose"
*1908 "Jesus in London"
*1883-1908 "Ballads and Lyrics of Socialism"
*1911 "Ballads and Verses of the Spiritual Life"
*1912 "Garden Poems"
*1915 "prayer in Time or War"
*1922 "Many Voices"
Songs
=======
*1899 'Slave Song' (Chappell),
External links
======================================================================
*
*[
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/13132 "The Writing of E. Nesbit"] by
Gore Vidal, 'The New York Review of Books', 3 December 1964
*[
https://web.archive.org/web/20120204102617/http://www.billgreenwell.com/lost_lives/index.php?key_id=572
"Lost Lives: Edith Bland"] by Bill Greenwell
*[
http://biography.yourdictionary.com/e-dith-nesbit Nesbit] at
YourDictionary.com (reprint from 'Encyclopedia of World Biography')
*
*[
https://lccn.loc.gov/no2003004327 Rosamund E. Nesbit Bland] at LC
Authorities, with 2 records, and
[
https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-no2003-004327 at WorldCat]
*
;Online texts
*
*
*
*
*
*[
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/rapunzel/shortstories/melisande.html
Melisande by E. Nesbit] , a tale similar to Rapunzel
*[
http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/ff8/nesbit.htm My School Days
(article series by Nesbit)]
*[
http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/ff8/mworld.htm 'The Magic
World']
License
=========
All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Nesbit
