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Anna Sewell (1820-1878) was a writer but a childhood injury and a later adult illness made her sickly and invalid for much of her life. She was a Quaker, born to middle-class Quaker parents, and lived at home all her life. Her only known book was Black Beauty, written from 1871 to 1877 while she was confined to bed. She dictated the manuscript to her mother, who was herself a moderately successful writer of books for children. Anna was quoted as saying, "I have for six years been confined to the house and to my sofa, and have from time to time, as I was able, been writing what I think will turn out a little book, its special aim being to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses." She died soon after the publication of her “little book,” which went to sell an estimated forty million copies up to the present day.
Black Beauty is a simple and lovely story, told by Black Beauty himself, from a colt to his retirement. He has good masters and bad masters. It is very interesting to see what effect taking good care of, or not taking good care of, a horse is like from the point of view of the horse! There is good moral teaching underlying much of the book, not “preachy,” as is sometimes said, but rather part of the moral setting of the story. Black Beauty was one of the earliest books in English to be told in first person from an animal’s viewpoint. Now, of course, this is common (e.g. Ben and Me and Mr. Revere and I, by Robert Lawson, see my reviews) but in the mid-to-late 1800s, it was not. This book is appropriate for upper elementary school and above readers, and the language is so simple and pure that it would also be a wonderful family read-aloud.
The illustrator of this edition of Black Beauty was Wesley Dennis (1903-1966), who is known for his lovely illustrations of horses and the Flip picture book series that he wrote and illustrated. However, he is best remembered for his collaboration with Marguerite Henry (1902-1997), author of the Misty of Chincoteague books and many others. She sought him out to illustrate her books after seeing his Flip series. Together they produced almost 20 books. Henry shared her royalties equally with Dennis, which is quite unusual, evidence of her high regard for the value of his illustrations in adding to the impact of her words.
Perhaps if a 10-year-old is begging to have a dog or a horse, they should read Black Beauty first to see what is entailed in taking full responsibility for an animal. The Lord God gave Adam and Eve dominion over the animals, to be good stewards of them, to use their labor, and to be kind to them. This responsibility has come down to us since we are all descended from our First Father and Mother and applies to pets and so much more.