THE WRITINGS OF HESBA STRETTON Ashgate Studies in Childhood, 1700 to the Present Series Editor: Claudia Nelson, Texas A&M University, USA This series recognizes and supports innovative work on the child and on literature for children and adolescents that informs teaching and engages with current and emerging debates in the field. Proposals are welcome for interdisciplinary and comparative studies by humanities scholars working in a variety of fields, including literature; book history, periodicals history, and print culture and the sociology of texts; theater, film, musicology, and performance studies; history, including the history of education; gender studies; art history and visual culture; cultural studies; and religion. Topics might include, among other possibilities, how concepts and representations of the child have changed in response to adult concerns; postcolonial and transnational perspectives; “domestic imperialism” and the acculturation of the young within and across class and ethnic lines; the commercialization of childhood and children’s bodies; views of young people as consumers and/or originators of culture; the child and religious discourse; children’s and adolescents’ self-representations; and adults’ recollections of childhood. Also in the series Public School Literature, Civic Education and the Politics of Male Adolescence Jenny Holt Women and the Shaping of the Nation’s Young Education and Public Doctrine in Britain 1750–1850 Mary Hilton The Nineteenth-Century Child and Consumer Culture Dennis Denisoff Conceptualizing Cruelty to Children in Nineteenth-Century England Literature, Representation, and the NSPCC Monica Flegel The Idea of Nature in Disney Animation David Whitley The Writings of Hesba Stretton Reclaiming the Outcast ELAINE LOMAX De Montfort University, UK First published 2009 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Elaine Lomax 2009 Elaine Lomax has asserted her moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Lomax, Elaine, 1947– The writings of Hesba Stretton: reclaiming the outcast. – (Ashgate studies in childhood, 1700 to the present) 1. Stretton, Hesba, 1832–1911 – Criticism and interpretation I. Title 828.8’09 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lomax, Elaine, 1947– The writings of Hesba Stretton: reclaiming the outcast / by Elaine Lomax. p. cm. — (Ashgate studies in childhood, 1700 to the present) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7546-5576-3 (alk. paper) 1. Stretton, Hesba, 1832–1911.—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Women authors, English—19th century. 3. Children’s literature—Authorship. 4. Literature and society— Great Britain—History—19th century. 5. Social reformers—Great Britain. 6. Children in literature. I. Title. II. Series. PR5499.S19Z75 2009 823’.8—dc22 2008036368 ISBN: 9780754655763 (hbk) Contents List of Figures vi Acknowledgements viii Introduction 1 Part 1 Private and Public Lives; Writing and Reading Worlds 1 Personal Writings, Published Texts, Biographical Perspectives 17 2 Publishers, Writers, Readers and Responses 49 Part 2 Roles, Representations and Social Relations 3 The Child: Text, Context and Intertext 81 4 ‘Worth her Weight in Gold’: Subtexts of Sexuality 115 5 Versions of Womanhood: Perspectives on Motherhood and Gender 135 6 Outcast Society and Society’s Outcasts 165 7 Religion, Romance, Reform and Revolution: The Russian Connection 203 Conclusion 215 Bibliography 219 Index 235 List of Figures 1.1 Early portrait of Hesba Stretton, The Young Woman, July 1894. Reproduction courtesy of Shropshire Archives. 18 1.2 Hesba Stretton as a woman of about forty, Memoir, Sunday at Home, December 1911. Reproduction courtesy of Shropshire Archives. 30 1.3 Hesba Stretton, Hulda Friederichs and Stretton’s sister Elizabeth (1907). Reproduction courtesy of Shropshire Archives. 45 1.4 Late portrait of Hesba Stretton, Memoir, Sunday at Home, December 1911 (Courtesy of Lutterworth Press). Reproduction courtesy of Shropshire Archives. 46 3.1 ‘He met with rebuffs, and felt downcast.’ In Prison and Out, 1880, Ch. 2, R. Barnes. 94 3.2 Jessica’s First Prayer, 1867/n.d., Ch.3, A.W. Bayes/Butterworth and Heath. 95 3.3 Little Meg’s Children, 1868/label 1889, Ch.8, W.S. Stacey/ Whymper. 103 3.4 In Prison and Out, 1880, Ch.7, R. Barnes. 109 4.1 Jessica’s First Prayer, 1867/n.d., Frontispiece, A.W. Bayes/ Butterworth and Heath. 122 4.2 The King’s Servants, 1873/label 1911, Part 3, Ch.7, [A. Miles]/Whymper. 127 4.3 Carola, 1884/label 1898, Ch.12, [W.L. Jones]/Whymper. 132 5.1 ‘A tall policeman came up and stood over them.’ The Storm of Life, 1876/label 1910, Ch.7, W.S. Stacey/Whymper. 136 5.2 ‘Homeless but not friendless.’ Bede’s Charity, 1872/c.1890, Ch.25, Illustrator unknown. 137 List of Figures vii 5.3 ‘Shelterless.’ A Thorny Path, 1879/c.1882, Ch.3, Illustrator unknown. 148 6.1 ‘Lost Margery.’ Bede’s Charity, 1872/c.1890, Frontispiece, Illustrator unknown. 167 6.2 ‘Under the Trees in the Park.’ Bede’s Charity, 1872/c.1890, Ch.18 Illustrator unknown. 183 6.3 Pilgrim Street, 1867/inscr.1890, Ch.12 [W.L. Jones]/Whymper. 190 7.1 In the Hollow of His Hand, 1897/label 1903, Ch.8 W.J. Morgan. 209 (All Stretton texts from author’s private collection.) Acknowledgements I should like to extend my thanks to all those institutions and individuals who have provided me with advice, assistance and support. These include: Shropshire Archives; NSPCC Archives; H.S. King/C. Kegan Paul Archives (University College, London); Archives of the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London); Senate House Library (University of London); the Women’s Library (London Metropolitan University); the British Library; the Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books (Toronto Public Library); Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (University of Texas at Austin); Lutterworth Press; the Society of Authors; and the Children’s Books History Society. I am especially grateful to the late Professor Julia Briggs and to Dr Clare Walsh for their guidance and encouragement. I am also indebted to my husband and family for their patience and support during my research and preparation of this book. Every effort has been made to trace or contact all copyright holders. The author would be pleased to rectify any omissions brought to her notice at the earliest opportunity. Introduction Hesba Stretton (Sarah Smith 1832–1911)1 is best known today as a writer of evangelical fiction for children. Her name is associated in the popular imagination with the exceptionally successful ‘waif’ narrative, Jessica’s First Prayer, an apparently simple, but, in fact, subtly layered tale, first published in volume form by the Religious Tract Society in 1867 and followed by other best-selling ‘street Arab’ titles including Little Meg’s Children (1868) and Alone in London (1869). Although Stretton’s reputation links her primarily with the juvenile market, the range of her work is extensive, much of it occupying uncertain terrain on the boundary between adult and children’s literature in terms of theme and readership. She produced more than sixty books, including full-length novels directed at an adult or young-adult audience (some for the secular market), as well as stories and articles of journalism for periodicals such as Dickens’s Household Words and All The Year Round. Importantly, the issues addressed by Stretton are much broader than is generally recognized. Her work is notable for its interaction with prominent nineteenth-century social, cultural and political debates, and for its engagement with many of the interests and anxieties of the period. Stretton was an active campaigner on social issues, both through her writing and through practical activities. Along with philanthropists such as Baroness Burdett-Coutts and Benjamin Waugh, she was a founder-member of the London Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and worked towards the reform of attitudes and legislation in areas such as poverty, juvenile crime and women’s rights. Bibliographies and histories of children’s literature have situated Stretton’s writing chiefly within the context of evangelical ‘street Arab’ tales; consequently, whilst her influence in this field has been acknowledged, entries have centred on a relatively narrow area of her work. Critics and commentators have emphasized the contemporary popularity of her narratives, but have, for the most part, only briefly discussed – or dismissed – them as belonging to a body of didactic and, to modern taste, unacceptably religious and sentimental writing, a stance which has served to foreclose more fruitful exploration of this literature. Analysis of Stretton’s writings remains, therefore, comparatively undeveloped; existing studies are limited in extent and perspective, and many areas – indeed many narratives – have remained unexplored.2 Scholars have not embraced the 1 The name ‘Hesba Stretton’ was adopted by Sarah Smith soon after she commenced writing, the first name uniting the initials of her siblings and the surname echoing the Shropshire village where the family owned property. 2 Several accounts appeared during the 1970s and early 1980s. Lance Salway’s 1970 essay discusses Stretton’s work in relation to contemporary social injustice, philanthropy and reform. A more comprehensive overview is provided by M. Nancy Cutt (1979) in her study of evangelical writing for children; Cutt terms Stretton a ‘genuine social reformer’ (154).