Edith Nesbit is primarily known for her novels for children, including The Story of the Treasure Seekers (1899), Five Children and It (1902) and The Railway Children (1906). She is considered by her biographer, Julia Briggs, to be “the first modern writer for children” and to have “invented the children’s adventure story more or less single-handed” (Briggs 2007, 10). She is increasingly also gaining recognition for her contributions to adult literature, including poetry and supernatural fiction.

Nesbit was born in Kennington, London, on the 15th August 1858, the youngest child of Sarah Nesbit and John Collis Nesbit, an agricultural chemist. Edith’s early …

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Citation: Margree, Victoria. "Edith Nesbit". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 June 2019 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3323, accessed 29 March 2024.]

3323 Edith Nesbit 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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