Born in Cheetham, Manchester, England, on November 24, 1849, Frances Hodgson Burnett developed her love for reading at a very young age. With an active imagination, she wrote stories and enjoyed narrating them to her mother, cousins, and friends. In 1868, Burnett’s first story was published in Godey’s Lady’s Book. She had begun writing for a livelihood and wrote non-stop. That Lass o’ Lowrie’s, her first full-length novel, was published in 1877. She started writing children’s fiction after meeting Louisa May Alcott and Mary Mapes Dodge—the editor of St. Nicholas, a children’s magazine. In the winter of 1887, she published Sara Crewe or What Happened at Miss Minchin’s in the United States. A Little Princess, an expanded version of Sara Crewe or What Happened at Miss Minchin’s, was published in book form in September 1905. A huge success, it is still considered among children’s all-time favourite novels. Burnett published The Secret Garden in 1911. A classic of children’s literature, it became one of her most popular novels.