Frances Hodgson Burnett, 66 Today, Has Been Writing 50 years

Nov. 24, 1915

Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett, who, in private life, is Mrs. Stephen Townsend, will pass her sixty-sixth milestone today. The popular novelist was born November 24, 1849, in Manchester England, and her maiden name was Frances Eliza Hodgson.

It was just half a century ago that the family moved to Knoxville, Tenn., and shortly after this the girl began the career as a writer which has made her name famous throughout the English speaking world. Although she is now well advanced in years, she has maintained her youthful spirits in fullest measure as evidenced by her latest book, "The Lost Prince," which fairly bubbles with the exuberance and romance of youth. Perhaps Mrs. Burnett has discovered on her annual pilgrimages to "the fairy isles" of Bermuda, the fountain of perpetual youth.

Mrs. Burnett — or Miss Hodgson as she then was — had the joy of seeing her first stories in the magazines when she was only seventeen years old, and ever since she has been a prolific writer. In 1873 she became the bride of Dr L. M. Burnett, and the young couple settled in Washington, which city Mrs. Burnett has since made her home when not in Bermuda or abroad. After a married life of twenty three years Dr. Burnett and his gifted wife agreed to disagree, and Mrs. Burnett obtained a divorce in 1898. Two years later she married another medical man, Dr. Stephen Townsend, an English surgeon, with whom she collaborated in the writing of "Nixie," "A Lady of Quality," and other plays.

Mrs. Burnett's first novel, "That Lass o' Lowrie's," was published in 1877, after she had served a long apprenticeship in writing short stories. Several other volumes followed, and in 1886 she attained an international deputation with her "Little Lord Fauntleroy." "In Connection With the DeWilloughby Claim," "The Dawn of Tomorrow," "A Little Princess," and more than a score of other novels, as well as a number of dramas, have added largely to her army of devoted admirers. Her latest novel, "The Lost Prince," is a fairy tale, breathing chivalrous romance, and a delightful refuge from the workaday world. — By O. Terrence, The Human Procession.