Agnes Giberne
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Agnes Giberne
(1845–1939), British writer, initially published under the name A.G. She produced over one hundred books on a variety of subjects, from scientific guides to the natural world to a biography of Charlotte Maria Tucker. Born in Belgaum, India, Giberne spent most of her life in England. Her Sun Moon and Stars: A Book for Beginners (1880) was written, she stated, for children, working men, or even grown people of the educated classes; the book portrays the universe as a patriarchal family network. Giberne's children's fiction, much of which was published by the Religious Tract Society, is often religious and overtly didactic, but her early texts for younger readers also offer an evocative portrait of the Victorians. In Giberne's first tale, A Visit to Aunt Agnes: For Very Little Children (1864), readers learn not only of childish pastimes but also of contemporary attitudes toward India and China and toward the American novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, published twelve years previously.
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Agnes Giberne
| Agnes Giberne | |
|---|---|
| Born | 19 November 1845 Belgaum, Karnataka, India |
| Died | 20 August 1939 (aged 93) Eastbourne, East Sussex, England |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | English |
| Period | 19th century |
| Genres | Children's Literature |
Agnes Giberne (19 November 1845, Belgaum, India - 20 August 1939 Eastbourne, England) was a prolific British author who wrote fiction with moral or religious themes for children and also books on astronomy for young people.
Educated by governesses in Europe and England after her father Major Charles Giberne retired from service in India, Agnes Giberne started publishing didactic novels and short stories with improving themes under her initials A.G., some of it for the Religious Tract Society. Later she used her full name for her fiction, for her well-received works on astronomy and the natural world, and for her biography of the children's writer Charlotte Maria Tucker. Most of her writing was done before 1910.
She was an amateur astronomer who worked on the committee setting up the British Astronomical Association and became a founder-member in 1890. Her popular illustrated book Sun, Moon and Stars: Astronomy for Beginners (1879), with a foreword by Oxford Professor of Astronomy, Charles Pritchard, was printed in several editions on both sides of the Atlantic, and sold 24,000 copies in its first 20 years. Later she wrote a book called "Among the Stars" which, as Giberne explains in the Introduction, is a version of "Sun, Moon and Stars" for younger children. It is about a boy called Ikon who is very interested in the stars. He meets a Professor who explains more about the stars and solar system to Ikon. Much of the information is very out of date, but it is an interesting children's book all the same.
Writing online
- Young Folks' Library, Volume XI (of 20) by Various at Project Gutenberg
- The Empire Annual for Girls, 1911 by Various at Project Gutenberg
References
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Allan Chapman, The Victorian Amateur Astronomer: Independent Astronomical Research in Britain 1820-1920 (John Wiley 1999)
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