Mary Wright Sewell Mary Wright Sewell Mary Wright Sewell (; 6 April 1797 – 10 June 1884) was an English poet and children's author. Though popular for writing juvenile bestsellers in her day, she is better known today as the mother of Anna Sewell, the author of "Black Beauty". Mary was born into the Quaker faith in 1797, and she married Isaac Sewell on the 15 June 1819 at Lamas in Norfolk. Her daughter Anna was born in 1820 and her son Philip two years later. Her husband Isaac had a number of ill-advised businesses and he declared himself bankrupt after his son
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