Waiting for the Party: The Life of Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1849-1924

Waiting For the Party is a biography of Frances Hodgeson Burnett who wrote Secret Garden, Little Princess.

FHB has a terrible reputation for soppiness - Fauntleroy is far less cloying than you'd think - but sentiment and babytalk were fashionable and while FHB earned huge sums, she also developed expensive tastes which put her under pressure to keep producing bestsellers. This biography does her strength and intelligence (and, all right, occasional cheesiness; The One I Knew Best Of All, a autobiog of her childhood, is gruesomely winsome) full justice.

This is a fine biography, but maybe every author doesn't live a life that creates a fascinating story. I love the Secret Garden, so was curious about the life of the author. I'd say this was a pretty average life.

Read during Winter 2004/2005

A biography of Frances Hodgson Burnett, whom I only knew as the author of Little Princess, Secret Garden, etc. Her life was much more fascinating as one of those mid-Atlantic types. She was born and grew up in Manchester, England but the family moved to Tennesse in her later teens and she went bewteen the continents at a time when such travel was not common. At times, the story got bogged down in details of who attended a garden party and I could not always keep track of various editors/publishers/dramatists. The obligatory psych-babble was uneeded but it does seem like Burnett was a complex character. Interesting to learn more about her and maybe now I'll finish up the Coombe/Robin set.