Edith Nesbit 1858—1924

Edith Nesbit was an English author and poet whose children’s works were published 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 precursor to the modern Labour Party. Among Nesbit’s best-known books are The Story of the Treasure Seekers and The Wouldbegoods, which both recount stories about the Bastables, a middle class family that has fallen on relatively hard times. Her children’s writing also included numerous plays and collections of verse.

She created an innovative body of work that combined realistic, contemporary children in real-world settings with magical objects and adventures and sometimes travel to fantastic worlds. In doing so, she was a direct or indirect influence on many subsequent writers, including P. L. Travers (author of Mary Poppins), Edward Eager, Diana Wynne Jones and J. K. Rowling. C. S. Lewis wrote of her influence on his Narnia series and mentions the Bastable children in The Magician’s Nephew. (source: Wikipedia)