Edith Nesbit 1858—1924
Edith Nesbit was born on 15 August 1858 in Kennington. Her father died when she was three, and her childhood was unsettled. She was sent to several schools, both in England and on the Continent, where on the whole she was unhappy, but the times which she spent with her mother were idyllic. In later life she was able to make good use of her vivid childhood memories.
By the age of fifteen E. Nesbit (this was her pen name) was writing poems, some of which were accepted for publication in magazines. In 1877 she met Hubert Bland, and the couple were married in April 1880, only shortly before their son was born. The young couple, who lived at 28 Elswick Road, Lewisham were very badly off, and E. Nesbit had to help support the family by writing, painting and giving public recitations. Both she and Bland, who later became a well-known journalist, were socialists, and in 1884 they were among the founder members of the Fabian Society, with which they remained actively involved for many years.
By 1885 E. Nesbit was the mother of three children, and, despite her busy life, was increasingly devoting her time to writing. She was considered Bohemian and rather ‘advanced’ for she smoked cigarettes and had cut her hair short. A lively, sociable person, she entertained guests frequently and numbered Bernard Shaw and other writers and socialists among her friends. The Blands moved house in Lee several times; they were at 5 Cambridge Road (now Cambridge Drive) in 1886, at 8 Dorville Road in 1888, and at 2 Birch Grove between 1889 and 1894,
In 1886 E. Nesbit published her first volume of poetry, “Lays and Legends”, which was a minor success. Throughout the 1890s she produced a number of short stories, poems, booklets and contributions to anthologies, some of this writing being hack work undertaken to earn money. In 1894 the Blands moved again, to a larger house called “Three Gables”, in Baring Road, Grove Park, and at about this time they formed, with some friends and neighbours, a short-lived but successful debating society, called ‘alt”, which met at various houses in Lee, Eltham and Blackheath. E. Nesbit had also been a member of the Lewisham Literary Society, about which she had this to say: “All its strength has run to title, and it has three secretaries who between them can never get a notice out in time.” From about 1888 onwards she devoted some of her time to social work among the poor of Deptford, especially arranging Christmas parties and treats for children.
E. Nesbit had to cope with difficulties and tragedy in her private life, The Blands lived with a friend, Alice Hoatson, who in the late 1880s had an illegitimate child. E. Nesbit was shocked to discover that Hubert Bland was the father, but she nevertheless agreed to bring up the child as her own. The whole episode was repeated in 1899 when Alice Hoatson and Bland had another child. E. Nesbit lost her own last baby, who died soon after birth, in the same year, and in 1900 she was grief stricken when her youngest and favourite son, Fabian, died at the age of fifteen after an operation to remove his tonsils.
At the same time, however, E. Nesbit was doing her best work for children. The Story of the Treasure Seekers, published in 1899, was the first book about the Bastable family, who live at 150 Lewisham Road, and later in Blackheath. In 1901 The Wouldbegoods, another story of the Bastables, appeared, and in 1902 Five Children and It, which features the mythical creature the Psammead, was published. The Red House, E. Nesbit’s best novel for adults, was also published in 1903. The proceeds from these books enabled the Blands to move in 1899 to Well Hall, Eltham, a large old moated house, where they entertained friends such as H. G. Wells, Laurence Housman and G. K. Chesterton.
The flow of books for children continued: The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904), The New Treasure Seekers (1904), The Story of the Amulet (1906) and The Railway Children (1906). Unfortunately, in the early years of this century E. Nesbit became interested in the theory that Shakespeare’s plays were really written by Sir Francis Bacon, and she wasted much time on this obsession. By 1910 Hubert Bland was in poor health and going blind, and he died in 1914. This was a dark period in E. Nesbit’s life; her husband’s death, the First World War and financial difficulties made her lonely and dispirited, and she stopped writing.
In 1917, however, E. Nesbit found renewed happiness when she married Thomas Terry Tucker, a former marine engineer known as “The Skipper”, who was running the Woolwich Ferry. He was a kind, wise man, and E. Nesbit wrote: “I feel as though I had opened another volume of the book of life (the last volume) and it is full of beautiful stories and poetry.” In 1922, for the sake of economy, they left Well Hall and moved to a bungalow at Jesson St. Mary’s, near Dymchurch. They entertained many friends there, and E. Nesbit began to write again. She also became very interested in religion, having been converted to Catholicism. She suffered a long bronchial illness before she died on 4 May 1924, and was buried at St. Mary’s-in-the-Marsh. Her last book, a collection of short stories for children called Five of Us — and Madeline was published posthumously in 1925.
E. Nesbit’s greatest qualities were her enthusiasm for life and her never-failing interest in everybody and everything. Her generous, relaxed nature and sense of fun made her an excellent hostess and companion. She refused to conform to the ideal of Victorian womanhood — Bernard Shaw described her as “an audaciously unconventional lady”. Proficient in many branches of literature, her talents were best suited to writing for children, and although her well-loved classics were written eighty or more years ago, they remain very popular.