Anna Sewell

Anna Sewell was born the oldest of two children in a devout Quaker family. Her mother, Mary Wright Sewell, was a successful children’s book author, and she educated her children at home due to the family’s tight finances. The family moved around several times in Sewell’s youth, and Sewell finally got to attend school at age 14 when the family moved to Stoke Newington. However, at about this time, Sewell slipped and seriously injured both her ankles—injuries that necessitated a crutch for the rest of her life. This led her to rely heavily on horse-drawn transportation, as walking any distance was impossible for her. In turn, this contributed to Sewell’s love of horses and sparked her interest in animal welfare. Beginning in Sewell’s mid-twenties, her family moved to southern England, hoping the weather would improve her health. Sewell and her mother left the Society of Friends. After joining the Church of England, Sewell helped her mother edit a number of evangelical children’s books. Sewell and her mother were also involved in campaigns for temperance and abolishing slavery. As Sewell got older, her health continued to decline. She sought treatment in continental Europe but eventually became bedridden in a Norwich village called Old Catton. There, with her mother’s help, Sewell wrote Black Beauty, her only published work, over a period of six years. She sold her novel for meager 40 pounds, and it became an immediate bestseller. Sewell died five months after Black Beauty was published, so she never got to see her novel become one of the bestselling English-language children’s books of all time (though she didn’t write it for children). The house in Old Catton where she wrote Black Beauty is now called the Anna Sewell House.