Frances Browne

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Frances Browne (1816 – 1887) was an Irish poet and novelist, best remembered for her collection of short stories for children: Granny's Wonderful Chair.

She was born at Stranorlar, in Donegal, Ireland, on January 16, 1816, the seventh child in a family of twelve children. She was blind from infancy.

In her writings, she recounts how she learned by heart the lessons which her brothers and sisters said aloud every evening, and how she bribed them to read to her by doing their chores.

In 1840, her first poem was published, and she published a complete volume of poems in 1844, and a second volume in 1848.

In 1847, she left Donegal for Edinburgh with one of her sisters as her reader and amanuensis. She quickly established herself in literary circles, and wrote essays, reviews, stories, and poems, in spite of health problems.

In 1852, she moved to London, where she wrote her first novel, My Share of the World (1861).

Her most famous work, Granny's Wonderful Chair, was published in 1856.

Frances Browne died in 1887.