Considered the first modern writer for children, Edith Nesbit wrote wonderfully imaginative tales about magical adventures in the everyday world. In Five Children and It (1902), the children dig in a sandpit and find a small, bad-tempered sand-fairy, the Psammead, allowed to grant one wish per day. They wish for many things: to be beautiful, rich, grow wings. But none of the wishes turn out right. The magic does wear off at sunset. Will they survive safely? In The Enchanted Castle (1907) three children stumble on a mysterious house and discover an invisible princess and a magic ring. At first it is a great adventure. When the children need an audience for a play, they make one from old clothes, pillows, and umbrellas. Then things go inexplicably wrong. As the curtain falls, there is a ghastly applause. The creatures have come alive and most disagreeable!
Author
Edith Nesbit (married name Edith Bland; 15 August 1858 – 4 May 1924) was an English author and poet; she published her books for children under the name of E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television. She was also a political activist and co-founded the Fabian Society, a socialist organisation later connected to the Labour Party. Edith Nesbit was born in Kennington, Surrey, the daughter of agricultural chemist and schoolmaster John Collis Nesbit. The death of her father when she was four and the continuing ill health of her sister meant that Nesbit had a transitory childhood, her family moving across Europe in search of healthy climates only to return to England for financial reasons. Nesbit therefore spent her childhood attaining an education from whatever sources were available—local grammars, the occasional boarding school but mainly through reading. At 17 her family finally settled in London and aged 19, Nesbit met Hubert Bland, a political activist and writer. They became lovers and when Nesbit found she was pregnant they became engaged, marrying in April 1880. After this scandalous (for Victorian society) beginning, the marriage would be an unconventional one. Initially, the couple lived separately—Nesbit with her family and Bland with his mother and her live-in companion Maggie Doran. Initially, Edith Nesbit books were novels meant for adults, including The Prophet's Mantle (1885) and The Marden Mystery (1896) about the early days of the socialist movement. Written under the pen name of her third child 'Fabian Bland', these books were not successful. Nesbit generated an income for the family by lecturing around the country on socialism and through her journalism (she was editor of the Fabian Society's journal, Today). In 1899 she had published The Adventures of the Treasure Seekers to great acclaim.
