Anna Sewell Anna Sewell Anna Sewell (; 30 March 1820 – 25 April 1878) was an English novelist. She is well known as the author of the 1877 novel "Black Beauty," one of the top ten best selling novels for children ever created. Sewell was born on 30 March 1820 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, into a devoutly Quaker family. Her father was Isaac Phillip Sewell (1793–1879), and her mother, Mary Wright Sewell (1798–1884), was a successful author of children's books. She had one sibling, a younger brother named Philip. The children were largely educated at home by their mother due to a
It Was Written not ready for the more prophetic themes of "Nastradamus", as it only sold 232,000 copies by its first week (less than half of "I Am…"s first-week figures). By 2001, "Illmatic" and "It Was Written" were both selling at a rate of over 3,000 copies a week, while "Nastradamus" was earning an average of little more than 2,000 copies a week, despite its relative newness. Both "I Am…" and "Nastradamus" received further criticism for their commercially oriented sound. Reflecting this widespread perception in the hip hop community and adding to his ongoing feud with Jay-Z at the time, Jay-Z mocked him