Anna Sewell was born in 1820 and lived with her family in Norfolk
and then in a village on the outskirts of London. At the age of
fourteen Anna injured her ankles in a fall, and was severely
disabled for the rest of her life. She had to travel everywhere in
horse-drawn carriages, and so Anna was always concerned with the
treatment of the animals she so relied upon. She wrote Black Beauty
in order to convince a wide audience of the importance of the
humane treatment of animals. It is her only novel, and Anna Sewell
died shortly after it's publication, little guessing how well-known
and widely loved her story would become.
Anna Sewell (1820 - 1878) was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. When
she was about fourteen, she sprained her ankle and it was treated
badly. That, and a bone disease, meant that Anna could never walk
properly. In those days, before the car, horses and one's own two
feet were the main means of transport. As she couldn't use her
feet, Anna began to rely heavily on horses to pull her around in a
cart or trap. Soon she grew to love horses and to be appalled by
the careless and cruel treatment they often received from
humans.
In 1871 a doctor told Anna that she had only eighteen months to
live. She was very weak but very determined to write a book, 'to
induce kindness, sympathy and understanding treatment of horses'.
Five years later, she was still working on Black Beauty, her only
book. By this time she was so weak that she couldn't get out of bed
and she could only write a few lines at a time. Her mother would
then make a clear copy of Anna's pencilled writing. Black Beauty
was finished and published in 1877. Anna died a few months after
publication so never knew of the book's huge success. It was
distributed by animal rights campaigners as well as through
bookshops - it really did change people's attitudes to horses and
other domestic animals. At Anna's funeral, her mother insisted that
the uncomfortable bearing-reins should be removed from all the
horses in the funeral procession.
Black Beauty was more than just a piece of do-good writing. Anna
Sewell was a natural writer; she knew that if you have a point to
make, you must first tell a good story that people will want to
read. For well over a hundred years, readers have been proving that
she got it right.
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