| Treasure Seekers Find Gems in E. Nesbit Stories, page 2 Nesbit also wrote fairy tales, and several collections of these can still be found: "The Last of the Dragons and Some Others," "E. Nesbit Fairy Stories," and "The Magic World." Among the fairy tales, homeschoolers will be amused by "Kind Little Edmund," a story about a bright and curious boy who shuns school because, "Edmund did not like to learn things: he wanted to find things out, which is quite different." Edmund takes apart clocks, door locks and cuts open a rubber ball to see what makes it bounce. Edmund went to school, of course, now and then, and sometimes he could not prevent himself from learning something, but but he never did it on purpose. "It is such a waste of time," said he, "They only know what everybody else knows. I want to find out new things that nobody had though of but me...." He played truant whenever he could, for he was a kind-hearted boy, and could not bear to think of a master's time and labor being thrown away on a boy like himself--who did not with to learn, only to find out--when there were so many worthy lads thirsting for instruction in geography and history, and reading and ciphering, and Mr. Smile's 'Self-Help.' Nesbit--know as Daisy to her family--disliked her schooling. In her autobiography Long Ago When I Was Young (recently reissued), Nesbit details her struggles with unruly hair, hands that refused to come clean and long division that was never explained to her and was thus impossible to learn. Her respite from the dreariness of schooling came with holidays spent with her family. She had an unusual upbringing: her father died when she was four, and her family had no settled home from the time she was seven until twelve years old. But she did spent at least one glorious summer in a country home in France where she was reunited with her brothers. The Nesbit children mucked around a nearby pond, went adventuring and dug a cave in a wet bank. Nesbit writes that her mother during these happy times "With a wisdom for which I shall thank her all my days, allowed us to run wild." Many of these adventures later turned up in her books, although most of the children in her books have a closely united family living a somewhat normal life in a permanent home--along with a few bits of magic. "The reason why those children are like real children is that I was a child once myself and by some fortunate chance I remember exactly how I used to feel and think about things," Nesbit said. "The happy memories of that golden time crowd thickly upon me. I see again the dewy freshness as of an enchanted world, that greeted us when we stole down, carrying our shoes in our hands long before the rest of the household was astir. I smell the scents of dead leaves and wood smoke, and it brings back to me the bonfires on autumn evenings when we used to play Red Indians and sit around the fire telling stories...." Nesbit began writing for adults to earn money soon after she married Hubert Bland and he became sick with small pox. He recovered, began writing political articles and with his wife helped form the Fabian Society, a discussion group for intellectual socialists. The mother of five, Nesbit herself was considered avant garde: she wore her hair short, believed in vigorous exercise, was known for leaping over garden gates, and played a guitar and sang for various friends as they gathered at the Bland's country home on weekends. But Nesbit chose to kept her socialist leanings out of the children's books, keeping the middle class values of the times instead. The Bland home, on the banks of a moat surrounding grass-covered foundations of houses dating back to Norman times, was a peaceful haven. The children skated on the moat in winter, swam in summer and Nesbit herself would float around in an old punt on sunny days writing. This home was undoubtably the basis for the house and moat in The Wouldbegoods. Nesbit's children's book garnered many adult fans--among them H.G. Wells, Bernard Shaw and Noel Coward--and many imitators among children's authors. A copy of The Enchanted Castle was found beside the bed of Noel Coward when he died. He wrote in 1956: "....all the pleasant memories of my own childhood jump at me from the pages....E.Nesbit knew all the things that stay in the mind, all the happy treasures. I suppose she, of all the writers I have ever read, has given me over the years the most complete satisfaction." And the poet C.L.Graves wrote this upon hearing of her death in 1924: You pass, but only from the ken Of scientists and statisticians, To join Hans Christian Anderson The Prince of all the good Magicians. E. Nesbit's books are recommended in Books Children Love, and Honey for a Child's Heart. Her books, with their delicious humor and zest, truly sparkle for literary treasure seekers of all ages. Notes: Some libraries catalog Nesbit's books under her married name, Edith Nesbit Bland. The BBC recently released two videos in the United States, The Sand Fairy and The Return of the Sand Fairy, which may be available in your local video store or library. The movies are well done (a la the BBC's Narnia Chronicles) , and follow Five Children and It quite closely. Copyright 1996, Sally Hunt Page 1 |