Juliana Horatia Ewing

Born in 1841 into a creative family, she was the daughter of Margaret Gatty, herself a well-known writer for children. She grew up in a lively literary world and began publishing stories that stood out for their emotional honesty, gentle wit, and close attention to the feelings of young readers.

Her best-known books include Mrs Overtheway's Remembrances, Jackanapes, and The Story of a Short Life. Rather than talking down to children, her fiction treated them as thoughtful, complicated people, which helped make her one of the most admired children's authors of her time.

She married army officer Alexander Ewing and spent parts of her married life in different military settings, experiences that informed some of her writing. She died in 1885, but her stories continued to be read long afterward for their tenderness, intelligence, and memorable sense of character.