Nesbit, E(dith) (1858-1924) English Author and Poet who wrote or collaborated on 60 books of fiction for children and was the originator of the new genre of writing using magical adventures stemming from everyday settings. She also wrote poetry, non-fiction, short stories and plays. Born in England, Nesbit's father died when she was four and her sister's poor health caused the family to live in France and Germany before returning to England. As a young woman she was a follower of William Morris, a founder of Eco-Socialism and the leader of the Arts and Crafts movement in England. At 19 she became pregnant by Hubert Bland, who was to become a prominent socialist. The two did not marry until just before the baby was born and did not live together until later. Bland had an open marriage and had several children by his lover, Alice Hoatson, who also lived with Nesbit and Bland and who Nesbit raised as if they were her own and dedicated several of her most important books to. In 1884 she, along with her husband, Havelock Ellis and others, founded the Fabian Movement, a socialist group that later became the Labour Party and was considered the pre-eminent intellectual society of Edwardian England. As part of the new women's movement, the beautiful Nesbit cut her hair short, publicly smoked cigarettes, was highly athletic, unconventional and undertook a bohemian lifestyle. She and her husband edited the society's journal Today and Nesbit became a prominent lecturer and speaker on socialism, although she was an advocate of a less radical form of the movement. Among the members of the society were Eleanor Marx, Annie Besant, George Bernard Shaw and Sidney and Beatrice Webb. The couple entertained some of the world's most prominent intellectuals at their grand home in Kent. Increasingly her writing became more important than her politics and besides doing a great deal of hack writing, she began to write children's books. In these books she advanced realistic subjects, usually the mainstay of adult novels, and is considered by many to be the creator of the children¿s adventure genre with her books including such things as time travel. Her most noted works include The Story of the Treasure Seekers, The Wouldbegoods, Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, The New Treasure Seekers, The Story of the Amulet, The Railway Children, The Enchanted Castle, The House of Arden, Harding's Luck, The Magic City, Wet Magic, etc. Her innovative style of children's fantasy combined real world settings with magic and magical adventures and is considered the influence for such writers as Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers, Diana Wynne Jones and J.K. Rowling. C.S. Lewis wrote of her influence on his Narnia series and mentions her The Barstable Children in his The Magician's Nephew, while Michael Moorcock would write a series of steampunk novels with an adult Osward Barstable of Nesbit's The Treasure Seekers, as his main character. Her poetry included Ballads and Lyrics of Socialism, A Tragedy, Appeal, Child's Song of Spring, In Trouble, St. Valentine's Day, The Despot, The Kiss, etc. Her book The Railway Children inspired a television series. Signature

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