E. NESBIT

Known primarily as a prolific writer of stories for children, Edith Nesbit’s novels included The Story of the Treasure-Seekers, The Wouldbegoods, and The Railway Children. She was also a poet, short story author and playwright, and, with her husband Hubert Bland, co-authored eight novels for adults. Bland and Nesbit were among the founders of the socialist Fabian Society, and practiced an open marriage. Their large family included Bland’s mistress, her child, and other children fathered by Bland, as well as the three borne by Nesbit. Edith Nesbit herself mixed in bohemian circles and kept a circle of occasional lovers including author George Bernard Shaw. She was a lecturer on socialism in addition to her writing, and affected lavish dress and a long cigarette holder, from which she smoked incessantly. Nesbit died in 1924, of lung cancer, having published over forty books. The realism in her children’s novels set her apart from the fantasies popular in her day, and her biographer Julia Briggs named her “the first modern writer for children.”