Frances Browne

(1816 – 1887)

Charles Madison Curry and Erle Elsworth Clippinger in their Children's Literature (1920, 1921) give the following introduction to an excerpt from Granny's Wonderful Chair:

One of the really successful modern attempts at telling new fairy stories was Granny's Wonderful Chair (1857) by the blind poet France Browne (1816-1887). In spite of the obstacles due to blindness, poverty. and ill-health, she succeeded in educating herself, and after achieving some fame as a poet left her mountain village in county Donegal, Ireland, to make a literary career in Edinburgh and London. She published many volumes of poems, novels, and children's books. Only one of these is now much read or remembered, but it has taken a firm place in the affec­tions of children. In Granny's Wonderful Chair there are seven stories, set in an interesting framework which tells of the adventures of the little girl Snowflower and her chair at the court of King Winwealth. This chair had magic power to transport Snowflower wherever she wished to go, like the magic carpet in the Arabian Nights. When she laid down her head and said, "Chair of my grandmother, tell me a story," a clear voice from under the cushion would at once begin to speak. Besides the story that follows [Fairyfoot], two of the most satisfactory in the collection are "The Greedy Shepherd" and "The Story of Merrymind." Perhaps one of the secrets of their charm is in the power of visualization which the author possessed. The pictures are all clear and definite, yet touched with the glamor of fairyland.

For more information about Frances Browne you may want to consult the following sources: