author
Helen Bannerman
1862–1946
Best known for writing and illustrating The Story of Little Black Sambo, this Scottish children's author lived much of her adult life in India and turned family storytelling into books that traveled widely. Her work remains notable both for its popularity and for the debate it later sparked.
1 Audiobook
The Story of Little Black Sambo, and The Story of Little Black Mingo
by Helen Bannerman
About the author
Born in Edinburgh on February 25, 1862, Helen Bannerman grew up partly in Madeira before continuing her education in Scotland. At a time when many academic paths were closed to women, she studied through external examinations and later married physician William Burney Bannerman.
Much of her writing life was shaped by the years she spent in Madras, India, where her husband worked in the Indian Medical Service. There she wrote and illustrated children's books, including The Story of Little Black Sambo in 1899, the book for which she is still best known.
Bannerman died in Edinburgh on October 13, 1946. Today she is remembered as a writer whose small, lively children's stories reached a huge audience, even as her best-known book has been reexamined and criticized for racial stereotyping.