From Sarah Smith to Hesba Stretton: Hidden in Plain Sight

Abstract

Sarah Smith (1832-1911), under the pseudonym of Hesba Stretton, was a popular author of children’s and adult literature in the Victorian era and a founding member of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. This thesis explores how Sarah created herself as the author Hesba Stretton: choosing a pseudonym and subject areas that both revealed and concealed who she was; using the popularity of her works to negotiate with publishers for a living wage for herself and her sister; and parlaying her authorial fame to argue and organize for reform on social issues important to her. Utilizing the insights of feminist literary scholar Carolyn Heilbrun, Smith/Stetton’s life is reconstructed to consider the unique opportunities, decisions, contributions and consternations of her life. Her logbooks, travel diaries, short stories, novels and articles, as well as the public record of her involvement in social issues of the day, are the primary sources used for this biographical interpretation of her life. Feminist scholarship, historical and literary, is utilized to give context and critical consideration to Hesba Stretton’s life and work. Finally, in keeping with Heilbrun’s precept that biographies are fictions—constructions of the biographer of a story she needs to tell—brief self-reflective pieces are included. In each chapter the reader sees an aspect of Heilbrun’s theory explored, a time of Hesba Stretton’s life examined, and a connection to the biographer’s life elaborated.