Black Beauty from the station from which he commuted to work. Her dependence on horse-drawn transportation fostered her respect for horses. Sewell's introduction to writing began in her youth when she helped edit the works of her mother, Mary Wright Sewell (1797–1884), a deeply religious, popular author of juvenile best-sellers. Anna Sewell never married or had children. In visits to European spas, she met many writers, artists, and philanthropists. Her only book was "Black Beauty", written between 1871 and 1877 in her house at Old Catton. During this time, her health was declining, and she could barely get out of bed. Her
Classic book as the classic of all literature and the alternate meaning of classic as "a standard author". Literary figures from different eras have also weighed in (sometimes humorously) on the matter. Alan Bennett, the modern English playwright and author, said that "Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have read themselves." Mark Van Doren, the Columbia University professor and poet, is quoted by Jim Trelease (in his library-monograph "Classic Picture Books All Children Should Experience"), as saying that "A classic is any book that stays in print". And in his "Disappearance of