Half Brothers — Hesba Stretton

Hesba Stretton was the pen name of Sarah Smith (1832-1911), an English writer of children's and adult fiction. She was one of the most popular Evangelical writers of the 19th century whose moral tales and semi-religious stories, chiefly for the young, were printed in huge numbers and often chosen as school and Sunday school prizes. She was a regular contributor to Household Words and All the Year Round under Charles Dickens's editorship and wrote more than 40 novels. She first achieved widespread fame with Jessica's Prayer, which appeared in Sunday at Home in 1866 and in book form the following year, and its sequel Jessica's Mother, which tell the story of a homelss girl in Victorian London, abandoned by her alcoholic actress mother, who receives religious support and friendship from a coffee stall owner who is also a chapel keeper in a Methodist chapel. Stretton became the chief writer for the Religious Tract Society and her experience working with slum children in Manchester in the 1860s gave her books a greater authenticity. In 1884 she was one of the co-founders of the London Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which some five years later combined with similar societies in other cities to form the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. This novel was first published in 1892 and is reprinted from the American edition of that year.