Anna Sewell

Anna Sewell ( born March 30, 1820 Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England; † April 25, 1878 in Old Catton, Norfolk ) was a British writer who wrote the book Black Beauty.

Life

Anna Sewell was the elder child of Mr and Mrs Mary Wright Sewell and Isaac Sewell. Her brother Philip was two years younger than her. The family moved to Anna Sewell's early childhood to London; because of economic difficulties, they often changed his place of residence. Anna and Philip Sewell were initially educated at home by her mother, who was a Quaker and used against slavery. Mary Wright Sewell also wrote children's literature.

Later Anna Sewell attended secondary school. On the way home, she pulled one day as a fourteen- year-old an ankle or knee injury that never healed properly. Therefore she lived until her death in her parents' household - the father died the same year as his daughter, the mother lived until 1884.

1866 died her sister. To Philip Sewell, who had seven children, to help, parents moved with Anna Sewell to Norfolk, where the family lived, and Anna Sewell contributed to the education of her nieces and nephews. From 1867 she lived in the so-called "White House " at the Spixworth Road Old Catton in. The property is known as Anna Sewell House today.

Anna Sewell's mobility away from home was ensured by a pony carriage, which they drew themselves. The pony, which she moved, should be later become the model for the pony Merrylegs in her novel Black Beauty; the figure of the black horse Black Beauty himself is said to her brother, a black mare named Bess the carriage horse, go back. The name " Black Beauty", she took over probably from a children's book by Maria Louisa Charlesworth, Ministering Children, which was published in 1854.

At the age of 50 years she decided to write a book about horses. She had not so much a children's book in mind, but wanted to horse owners and users to inform about animal cruelty to housing conditions and atrocities such as the essay rein that forced the horse to carry its head in an unnatural position, thereby causing strain and breathing difficulties which may lead to rapid wear the teams led. In her last years she could because of an illness no longer leave the house and had to dictate a part of the book sets her mother. For the manuscript received no high pay. It was published shortly before her death; that it became a best seller, they did not live.

Anna Sewell was buried in the Quaker cemetery in Lamas or Lammas at Buxton in Norwich county. Her grave stone has been preserved, but no longer located in its original place, since the grave was leveled in 1984.

Memorials

Anna Sewell's birthplace is now a museum. In Norwich is located at the intersection of Constitution Hill and St. Clement 's Hill at the entrance to Sewell Park is a fountain in the form of a horse trough, the Ada Sewell was set up in 1917 in memory of Anna Sewell there. The Sewell Barn where the Sewell Barn Theatre Company is located today, is to once have lived, the horse that inspired the figure of the Black Beauty. The building belonged to the estate of her brother Philip, whose actual residence is not preserved.