Editing E. Nesbit (section)

==Biography==
Nesbit was born in 1858 at 38 Lower Kennington Lane, [[Kennington]], Surrey (now [[London]]),{{efn|Lower Kennington Lane is now the northern half of Kennington Lane, between Kennington Road and Newington Butts; the house has been demolished and there is no commemoration. Galvin, in her biography (p. 2), claims that Lower Kennington Lane is now buried deep below a main road and supermarkets. This rests on a confusion between modern Kennington Lane and its constituent former parts, Upper Kennington Lane and Lower Kennington Lane. Lower Kennington Lane still exists, though renamed and renumbered, but most of the houses of the 1850s have gone. An earlier version of the ''King's Arms'' public house, now at 98 Kennington Lane, was numbered 44 Lower Kennington Lane. The 1861 census records Edith Nesbit at her father's Agricultural College further along the street.{{Cite web |url=https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record/browse?id=gbc%2f1861%2f0353%2f00225a |website=search.findmypast.co.uk |title=Find My Past 1861 Census |access-date=2020-07-29}} That site is now occupied by 20th-century public housing.}} the daughter of an agricultural chemist, [[John Collis Nesbit]], who died in March 1862, before her fourth birthday. Her mother was Sarah Green (née Alderton).{{sfn|Briggs|1987|pp=2–4}}

The ill health of Edith's sister Mary meant that the family travelled for some years, living variously in [[Brighton]], Buckinghamshire, France ([[Dieppe]], [[Rouen]], Paris, [[Tours]], [[Poitiers]], [[Angoulême]], [[Bordeaux]], [[Arcachon]], [[Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques|Pau]], [[Bagnères-de-Bigorre]], and [[Dinan]] in Brittany), Spain and Germany. Mary was engaged in 1871 to the poet [[Philip Bourke Marston]], but later that year she died of [[tuberculosis]] in Normandy.<ref>Elisabeth Galvin, ''The Extraordinary Life of E Nesbit'', p. 16.</ref>

After Mary's death, Edith and her mother settled for three years at Halstead Hall, [[Halstead, Kent|Halstead]], north-west [[Kent]], a location that inspired ''[[The Railway Children]]'', although the distinction has also been claimed by the [[Derbyshire]] town of [[New Mills]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://archive.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/2000/4/22/154169.html |title=Railway Children battle lines are drawn |newspaper=[[Telegraph & Argus]] |location=[[Bradford]] |date=22 April 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120921064437/http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/archive/2000/04/22/Bradford+District+Archive/8056084.Railway_Children_battle_lines_are_drawn/ |archive-date=21 September 2012 |access-date=29 December 2013}}</ref>

When Nesbit was 17, the family moved back to [[Lewisham]] in south-east London. There is a [[London Borough of Lewisham|Lewisham Council]] plaque to her at 28 Elswick Road.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/edith-nesbit |website=londonremembers.com |title=London Remembers: Edith Nesbit |access-date=2020-07-29}}</ref>

In 1877, at the age of 18, Nesbit met the bank clerk [[Hubert Bland]], her elder by three years. Seven months pregnant, she married Bland on 22 April 1880, but did not initially live with him, as Bland remained with his mother. Their marriage was tumultuous. Early on, Nesbit found that another woman, Maggie Doran, who lived with his mother, believed she was Hubert's fiancée and had also borne him a child. Nesbit's children by Bland were Paul Cyril Bland (1880–1940), to whom ''[[The Railway Children]]'' was dedicated, Mary Iris Bland (1881–1965), who married John Austin D Phillips in 1907,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/account/signin?returnurl=https%3a%2f%2fwww.ancestry.co.uk%2finteractive%2f8913%2fONS_M19074AZ-0030%3fpid%3d2696214%26backurl%3dhttps%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.co.uk%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3findiv%3d1%26dbid%3d8913%26h%3d2696214%26tid%3d%26pid%3d%26usePUB%3dtrue%26_phsrc%3dWUg3072%26_phstart%3dsuccessSource%26treeid%3d%26personid%3d%26hintid%3d%26usePUB%3dtrue%26_phsrc%3dWUg3072%26_phstart%3dsuccessSource%26usePUBJs%3dtrue |title=Ancestry – Sign In |website=ancestry.co.uk}}</ref> and Fabian Bland (1885–1900).

A more serious blow came in 1886, when she discovered that her friend {{va|Alice Hoatson}} was pregnant by him. She had previously agreed to adopt Hoatson's child and allow Hoatson to live with her as their housekeeper. After she discovered the truth, she and her husband quarrelled violently and she suggested that Hoatson and the baby, [[Rosamund Edith Nesbit Bland|Rosamund]], should leave; her husband threatened to leave Edith if she disowned the baby and its mother. Hoatson remained with them as a housekeeper and secretary and became pregnant by Bland again 13 years later. Edith again adopted Hoatson's child, John.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Langley Moore |first=Doris |title=E. Nesbit: a biography |url=https://archive.org/details/enesbitbiography00moor |url-access=registration |year=1966 |publisher=Chilton Books |location=Philadelphia and New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/enesbitbiography00moor/page/70 70]–71, 102–103}}</ref> Bland's two children by Alice Hoatson, whom Edith adopted, were [[Rosamund Edith Nesbit Bland|Rosamund Edith Nesbit Hamilton]], later Bland (1886–1950), who married Clifford Dyer Sharp on 16 October 1909,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/1623/47188_263021009500_2846-00219?pid=921899572&backurl=https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=1623&h=921899572&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=WUg3073&_phstart=successSource&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=WUg3073&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true |title=Ancestry – Sign In |website=ancestry.co.uk}}</ref> and to whom ''The Book of Dragons'' was dedicated, and John Oliver Wentworth Bland (1899–1946) to whom ''[[The House of Arden]]'' and ''[[Five Children and It]]'' were dedicated.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/five-children-and-a-philandering-husband-e-nesbits-private-life/ |title=Five children and a philandering husband: E Nesbit's private life |first=Ben |last=Lawrence |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=4 July 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1002/path.1700590427 |title=John Oliver Wentworth Bland (born 6 October 1899, died 10 May 1946) |journal=The Journal of Pathology and Bacteriology |volume=59 |issue=4 |pages=716–721 |year=1947 |last1=Bedson |first1=S. P.}}</ref> Nesbit's son Fabian died aged 15 after a [[tonsil]] operation; Nesbit felt guilt over this, having fed him shortly before the [[general anaesthetic]] and in then leaving him unattended afterwards, not realising that he might choke to death on regurgitated food; she subsequently dedicated several books to him, including ''[[The Story of the Treasure Seekers]]'' and its sequels. Nesbit's adopted daughter Rosamund collaborated with her on ''Cat Tales''.

[[File:E Nesbit's Grave - St Mary In The Marsh Churchyard.jpg|thumb|E. Nesbit's grave in St Mary in the Marsh's churchyard bears a wooden marker by her second husband, Thomas Terry Tucker. There is also a memorial plaque to her inside the church.]]
Nesbit admired the artist and [[Marxist philosophy|Marxian]] socialist [[William Morris]].<ref>Phillippa Bennett and Rosemary Miles (2010). ''William Morris in the Twenty-First Century''. Peter Lang. {{ISBN|3034301065}}. p. 136.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.morrissociety.org/publications/JWMS/SP88.7.4.Spittles.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2013-09-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927213022/http://www.morrissociety.org/publications/JWMS/SP88.7.4.Spittles.pdf |archive-date=27 September 2013}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.morrissociety.org/publications/JWMS/AU86.7.1.Morton.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2013-09-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927213028/http://www.morrissociety.org/publications/JWMS/AU86.7.1.Morton.pdf |archive-date=27 September 2013}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.morrissociety.org/publications/JWMS/SP00.13.4.Bartels.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2013-09-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927213111/http://www.morrissociety.org/publications/JWMS/SP00.13.4.Bartels.pdf |archive-date=27 September 2013}}</ref> The couple joined the founders of the [[Fabian Society]] in 1884,<ref>{{Cite book |title=Five Children and It|publisher=Penguin Books Ltd |year=1996 |isbn=9780140367355 |location=London |chapter=Introduction |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/fivechildrenit00nesb}}</ref> after which their son Fabian was named,{{sfn|Briggs|1987|p=62}} and jointly edited its journal ''Today''. Hoatson was its assistant secretary. Nesbit and Bland dallied with the [[Social Democratic Federation]], but found it too radical. Nesbit was a prolific lecturer and writer on socialism in the 1880s. She and her husband co-wrote under the pseudonym "Fabian Bland",<ref>''The Prophet's Mantle'' (1885), a work of fiction inspired by the life of [[Peter Kropotkin]] in London.{{full citation needed|date=December 2013}}</ref> However, the joint work dwindled as her success rose as a children's author. She was a guest speaker at the [[London School of Economics]], which had been founded by other Fabian Society members.

Edith lived from 1899 to 1920 at [[Well Hall]], [[Eltham]], in south-east London,<ref name="LonGaz">"Well Hall" entry of ''London Gazetteer'' by Russ Willey, ([[Chambers Harrap|Chambers]] 2006) {{ISBN|0-550-10326-0}} (online extract [http://hidden-london.com/gazetteer/well-hall/])</ref> which makes fictional appearances in several of her books, such as ''The Red House''. From 1911 she kept a second home on the Sussex Downs at Crowlink, [[East Dean and Friston|Friston]], East Sussex.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://womenofeastbourne.co.uk/influential-women/edith-nesbit/ |title=Edith Nesbit |website=Women of Eastbourne}}</ref> She and her husband entertained many friends, colleagues and admirers at Well Hall.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Iannello, Silvia |url=http://silvia-iannello.blogspot.com/2011/09/edith-nesbit-la-precorritrice-della.html |title=Edith Nesbit, la precorritrice della Rowling |publisher=Silvia-iannello.blogspot.com (reprint 19 September 2011 from Zam (zam.it))<!--maybe--> |work=Tvcinemateatro―i protagonisti |date=18 August 2008 |access-date=9 August 2012}}</ref>

On 20 February 1917, some three years after Bland died, Nesbit married Thomas "the Skipper" Tucker in [[Woolwich]], where he was captain of the [[Woolwich Ferry]].

Although she was the family breadwinner and has the father in ''The Railway Children'' declare that "[g]irls are just as clever as boys, and don’t you forget it!", Nesbit did not champion women's rights. "She opposed the cause of women’s suffrage—mainly, she claimed, because women could swing Tory, thus harming the Socialist cause."<ref name="Winter-28Sep2022">{{cite magazine |last1=Winter |first1=Jessica |title=The British writer who rewrote the world for children |url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-british-socialist-who-rewrote-the-world-for-children?cn |access-date=30 September 2022 |magazine=The New Yorker |date=28 September 2022}}</ref> She is said to have avoided the literary moralising that characterised the age. "And, most crucially, both books are constructed from a blueprint that is also a kind of reënactment of the author’s own childhood: an idyll torn up at its roots by the exigencies of illness, loss, and grief."<ref name="Winter-28Sep2022"/>

Towards the end of her life, Nesbit moved first to Crowlink, then with the Skipper to two conjoined properties which were [[Royal Flying Corps]] buildings, 'Jolly Boat' and 'Long Boat'. Nesbit lived in 'Jolly Boat' and the Skipper in 'Long Boat'. Nesbit died in 'The Long Boat' at Jesson, [[St Mary's Bay, Kent|St Mary's Bay]], [[New Romney]], Kent, in 1924, probably from lung cancer (she "smoked incessantly"),<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gardner |first=Lyn |title=how did E Nesbit come to write such an idealised celebration of Victorian family life? |newspaper=The Guardian |url= https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2005/mar/26/theatre.booksforchildrenandteenagers |date=26 March 2005}}</ref> and was buried in the churchyard of [[St Mary in the Marsh]]. Her husband Thomas died at the same address on 17 May 1935. Edith's son Paul Bland was an executor of Thomas Tucker's will.