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Mary Martha Sherwood (née Butt; 6 May 1775 – 22 September 1851) was a prolific and influential writer of children's literature in 19th-century Britain. She composed over 400 books, tracts, magazine articles, and chapbooks. Among her best known works are ''The History of Little Henry and his Bearer'' (1814), ''The History of Henry Milner'' (1822–37), and ''The History of the Fairchild Family'' (1818–47). While Sherwood is known primarily for the strong evangelicalism that coloured her early writings, her later works are characterized by common Victorian themes, such as domesticity. Sherwood's childhood was uneventful, although she recalled it as the happiest part of her life. After she married Captain Henry Sherwood and moved to India, she converted to evangelical Christianity and began to write for children. Although her books were initially intended only for the children of the military encampments in India, the British public also received them enthusiastically. The Sherwoods returned to England after a decade in India and, building upon her popularity, Sherwood opened a boarding school and published scores of texts for children and the poor. Many of Sherwood's books were bestsellers and she has been described as "one of the most significant authors of children's literature of the nineteenth century".〔Dawson, 281.〕 Her depictions of domesticity and Britain's relationship with India may have played a part in shaping the opinions of many young British readers.〔Cutt, 97–98.〕 However, her works fell from favor as a different style of children's literature came into fashion during the late nineteenth century, one exemplified by Lewis Carroll's playful and nonsensical ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. == Early life == Sherwood was born on 6 May 1775, in Stanford-on-Teme, Worcestershire, as the eldest daughter and second child of Martha Butt and Reverend George Butt, the chaplain in ordinary to George III.〔Demers, "Mary Martha Sherwood"; Cutt, 1–2; Dawson, 271–2.〕 In her autobiography, Sherwood describes herself as an imaginative and playful child. She composed stories in her head before she could write and begged her mother to copy them down.〔''The Life and Times of Mrs. Sherwood'', 33.〕 Sherwood remembered her childhood as a delightful time filled with exciting "adventures" undertaken with her brother. She even makes the best of the "stocks" that she was forced to stand in while she did her lessons: Sherwood and her sister, Lucy Lyttelton's education was wide-ranging for girls during the late eighteenth century: Sherwood learned Latin and Greek and was permitted to read freely in her father's library.〔Dawson, 271.〕 Sherwood states in her autobiography that she was tall and ungainly for her age and that she hid in the woods with her doll to escape visitors.〔''The Life and Times of Mrs. Sherwood'', 50.〕 But she seems to have enjoyed attending Madame St. Quentin's School for Girls at Reading Abbey, which was run by French émigrés and was the same school Jane Austen had attended.〔 Sherwood seems to have had a generally happy childhood, marred only by the intrusion of the French Revolution and the upheavals it caused throughout Europe.〔Gilchrist, pp. 44–53; 81–93〕 Sherwood spent some of her teenage years in Lichfield, where she enjoyed the company of the eminent naturalist Erasmus Darwin, the educational reformer Richard Lovell Edgeworth, his daughter Maria Edgeworth — who later became a famous writer in her own right — and the celebrated poet Anna Seward.〔Smith, 2–3.〕 Although she was intellectually stimulated by this group of gifted writers, she was distressed by their lack of faith and later described Richard Edgeworth as an "infidel."〔''The Life and Times of Mrs. Sherwood'', 11.〕 She also criticized Seward's persona of the female author, writing in her autobiography that she would never model herself after a woman who wore a wig and accumulated male flatterers.〔''The Life and Times of Mrs. Sherwood'', 82.〕 Despite what she viewed as the pitfalls of fame, she was determined to become a writer and when she was seventeen her father, who encouraged her writing, helped her publish her first story, ''Traditions'' (1795).〔Demers, "Mary Martha Sherwood"; Dawson, 272–3.〕 When Sherwood's father died in 1795, her family retired from its active social life, since her mother preferred seclusion, and moved to Bridgnorth, Shropshire.〔Cutt, 2; Dawson, 272.〕 At Bridgnorth Sherwood began writing sentimental novels; in 1802 she sold ''Margarita'' for £40 to Mr. Hazard of Bath, and ''The History of Susan Grey'', a ''Pamela''-like novel, for £10.〔Demers, "Mary Martha Sherwood"; Cutt, 2.〕 During this time she also taught at a local Sunday school.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mary Martha Sherwood」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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