Edith Nesbit Bland, often considered the originator of the juvenile fantasy novel, discovered her vocation as a children's writer late and reluctantly. Disappointed by the reception of her lyric poetry, she found the ideal outlet for her wit and exuberance in a succession of humorous and imaginative novels for children, published under the name E. Nesbit, that have influenced many other writers and are still discovered with pleasure by both children and adults. Her novels for adults were less well received in her lifetime and have been nearly forgotten since her death, but although marred by the banalities of romantic convention, they nonetheless reveal the combination of realism and fantasy that marks Nesbit's best work for children.

Nesbit's unhappy childhood is reflected only indirectly in her novels, in which she re-creates her life as she wished it to have been. The youngest of six children, Edith Nesbit was...