Mary Martha Sherwood

Mary Martha Sherwood ( 6 May 1775 – 22 September 1851) was a 19th-century English children's writer of over 400 works. The best known include The History of Little Henry and his Bearer (1814), The History of Henry Milner (1822–1837), and The History of the Fairchild Family (1818–1847). Her evangelicalism permeated her early writings, but later works cover common Victorian themes such as domesticity. She married Captain Henry Sherwood and moved to India, converted to evangelical Christianity and began to write for children, with those of military encampments there in mind, but her work was well received in Britain, where the Sherwoods returned after a decade. She opened a boarding school and published texts for children and the poor, as "one of the most significant authors of children's literature of the nineteenth century". Her depictions of domesticity and ties with India may have influenced many young readers, but her work fell from favour as children's literature broadened in the late 19th century.