Frances Elisa Hodgson Burnett (November 24, 1849 - October 29, 1924) was an Anglo-American novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children's novels Lord Fountleroy (published 1885-1886), The Little Princess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911).
Frances Elisa Hodgson was born in Chetham, Manchester, England. After the death of her father in 1853, when Frances was 3 years old, the family fell into difficult circumstances and in 1865 emigrated to the United States, settling in New Market, Tennessee. Frances began her rewarding writing career there at the age of 19 to help make money for the family, publishing stories in magazines. In 1870, her mother died. In Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1873 she married Swan Burnett, who became a physician. Their first son, Lionel, was born a year later. The Burnetts lived for two years in Paris, where their second son, Vivien, was born, before returning to the United States to live in Washington, D.C. Burnett then began writing novels, the first of which was published (That Lass o' Lowrie's). For good reviews. Little Lord Funtleroy was published in 1886 and made her a popular writer of children's stories, although her adult romance novels written in the 1890s were also popular. She wrote and helped produce stage versions of Little Lord Funtleroy and Little Princess.