Records of Girlhood

In this sequel to her 2000 anthology, Valerie Sanders again brings together an influential group of women whose autobiographical accounts of their childhoods show them making sense of the children they were and the women they have become. The fourteen women included juxtapose recollections of the bizarre with the quotidian and accounts of external events with the development of a complex inner life. Reading and acting are important themes, as is the precariousness of childhood, whether occasioned by a father's financial pressures or the early death of a parent. Significantly, most grew up expecting to earn their own living. The collection includes children's authors (Frances Hodgson Burnett and E. Nesbit), political figures (Emmeline Pankhurst and Louisa Twining), and well-known writers (Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Anne Thackeray Ritchie, Sarah Grand). Of relevance to scholars working in the fields of women’s autobiography, the history of childhood, and Victorian literature, this anthology includes a scholarly introduction and brief biographical sketches of each woman.