Introduction

Hesba Stretton (Sarah Smith 1832-1911)1 is best known today as a writer of evangelical fiction for children. Her name is associated in the popular imagination with the exceptionally successful ‘waif’ narrative, Jessica’s First Prayer, an apparently simple, but, in fact, subtly layered tale, first published in volume form by the Religious Tract Society in 1867 and followed by other best-selling ‘street Arab’ titles including Little Meg’s Children (1868) and Alone in London (1869). Although Stretton’s reputation links her primarily with the juvenile market, the range of her work is extensive, much of it occupying uncertain terrain on the boundary between adult and children’s literature in terms of theme and readership. She produced more than sixty books, including full-length novels directed at an adult or young-adult audience (some for the secular market), as well as stories and articles of journalism for periodicals such as Dickens’s Household Words and All The Year Round. Importantly, the issues addressed by Stretton are much broader than is generally recognized. Her work is notable for its interaction with prominent nineteenth-century social, cultural and political debates, and for its engagement with many of the interests and anxieties of the period. Stretton was an active campaigner on social issues, both through her writing and through practical activities. Along with philanthropists such as Baroness Burdett-Coutts and Benjamin Waugh, she was a founder-member of the London Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and worked towards the reform of attitudes and legislation in areas such as poverty, juvenile crime and women’s rights.