Donated by the Lauren Rogers Museum in Laurel, Mississippi.
Noncirculating; available for research.
The collection is protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. Code). Reproductions can be made only if they are to be used for "private study, scholarship, or research." It is the user's responsibility to verify copyright ownership and to obtain all necessary permissions prior to the reproduction, publication, or other use of any portion of these materials, other than that noted above.
Frances Hodgson Burnett, novelist and playwright, was born in Manchester, England in 1849 and emigrated with her family to the United States in 1865 after the death of her father. Frances began writing to supplement the family's income, publishing her stories from the age of 19. Frances married physician Swan Burnett in 1872 and they had two sons, Lionel and Vivian. After returning to the US from an extended stay in Paris, Frances began writing novels. That Lass o' Lowrie's became her first published novel in 1877, and she began writing for children in 1879. In the realm of children's literature, Frances is perhaps best known for Little Lord Fauntleroy, which first appeared as a serial in the November 1885 issue of St. Nicholas. A year after it first appeared as a serial, Burnett's publishers released Fauntleroy as a novel and it became a huge bestseller. A stage production that followed was almost as successful as the book.
Burnett contributed many other stories to St. Nicholas during her lifetime, including "Sara Crewe" in December 1887, which was eventually published as A Little Princess in 1905. Her son, Vivian, was involved in the publishing industry, and persudaded her to serve as editor for Children's Magazine in the early 1900s. She published several pieces within the pages of Children's Magazine while continuing to write longer works. The Secret Garden, which was written during a stay in Manchester in 1904, was eventually published in 1911 to great acclaim. After two divorces, Frances remained single from 1902 until the end of her life. She was quite prolific in her writing, and was one of the first females to make her living (and support a family) solely as a writer. She passed away in October of 1924 at her beloved Plandome Manor home on Long Island, New York.
Sources:
This collection contains only one item: a typed letter from Burnett's son, Vivian, to Mrs. May Rowland, hostess of the Sunshine Club at the Mississippi State Sanatorium (for the treatment of tuberculosis).
The Sunshine Club promoted patient welfare and entertainment and also organized fund-raisers to provide the Sanatorium with money to pay for patients' games, seasonal parties and dramatic or musical programs. May Rowland had entered the program in 1920 as a patient and joined the staff in 1923.
When Vivian Burnett wrote Rowland in 1926, he stated that the items he included (a signed copy of "The One I Knew Best of All," and the full script of a preface to The Drury Lane Boys Club) would hopefully fetch a fair price at one of the Sanatorium's fund-raisers. The deGrummond Collection has several of Frances Hodgson Burnett's books, including The Drury Lane Boys Club, but the other items her son said he included with the letter are not in our possession.
The deGrummond Collection has two original letters of Frances Hodgson Burnett in the St. Nicholas correspondence (DG0929). Also, in deGrummond's correspondence file are two letters from Vivian Burnett's wife, Constance B. Burnett.
Box/Folder
A. Correspondence
1/1 Vivian Burnett to May Rowland, 1926, one item.
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