Anna Sewell (1820–1878) was an English Quaker-raised writer from Norfolk. An injury to her ankles in adolescence left her lame for life, and she depended on horse-drawn carriages to get about, which gave her close knowledge of horses and their treatment. Black Beauty, her only book, was written during her last years of illness, partly dictated to her mother, the writer Mary Sewell, and was published a few months before her death.
Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions, subtitled 'The Autobiography of a Horse', is narrated by a handsome black horse with a white star and one white foot. He grows up in a pleasant meadow under a kind master, Farmer Grey, and his mother Duchess teaches him to be gentle and good and to work willingly.
