Classic Starts Books

Mark Twain is the pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910). He was born in Missouri, USA. He travelled around America, seeking fame and fortune before returning to become a steam-boat pilot on the Mississippi River, where he had grown up. Later he became a successful journalist and travel writer. In 1876 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, inspired by his own childhood, was published, followed eight years later by The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) was born in Manchester. She had a very poor upbringing and used to escape from the horror of her surroundings by writing stories. In 1865 her family emigrated to the USA where she married and became the successful author of many children’s books including Little Lord Fauntleroy and A Little Princess.

Daniel Defoe (c. 1660 - 1731) was an English writer, journalist, and spy, who gained enduring fame for his novel, Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest practitioners of the novel and helped popularize the genre in Britain. In some texts he is even referred to as one of the founders, if not the founder, of the English novel. A prolific and versatile writer, he wrote more than five hundred books, pamphlets, and journals on various topics (including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural). He was also a pioneer of economic journalism.

Hugh Lofting was the creator of the beloved Doctor Dolittle children’s book series. He created the idea for the stories when writing letters home to his children while serving in the British army during World War I to avoid filling his letters with the atrocities or boredom of war.

Diane Namm is the author of several of Sterling’s Classic Starts books, including Phantom of the Opera and Greek Myths, as well as other Silver Penny titles (including Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Jack and the Beanstalk). She lives in Malibu, CA. Linda Olafsdottir has a BFA from the Icelandic Academy of the Arts and an MFA in illustration for the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Her work has appeared in such publications as Poets and Artists and Creative Quarterly. Linda lives in Reykjavík with her husband and two children. Learn more about her at lindaolafsdottir.com/#hom.

Louisa May Alcott, born in 1832, was the second child of Bronson Alcott of Concord, Massachusetts, a self-taught philosopher, school reformer, and utopian who was much too immersed in the world of ideas to ever succeed in supporting his family. That task fell to his wife and later to his enterprising daughter Louisa May. While her father lectured, wrote, and conversed with such famous friends as Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau, Louisa taught school, worked as a seamstress and nurse, took in laundry, and even hired herself out as a domestic servant at age nineteen. The small sums she earned often kept the family from complete destitution, but it was through her writing that she finally brought them financial independence. “I will make a battering-ram of my head,” she wrote in her journal, “and make a way through this rough-and-tumble world.”

Charles Dickens is regarded by many as the most successful and accomplished writer of the Victorian era. He wrote 15 novels that introduced to the world many memorable characters, not list of which is the infamous Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol. From has platform as a famous writer, Dickens championed rights for children and society’s poor.

Troy Howell has been writing and illustrating books for more than 25 years. His many awards and distinctions include starred reviews in Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal; an American Bookseller Pick of the Lists; an Educational Press Association of America Distinguished Achievement Award; and Merit Awards from the Los Angeles Society of Illustrators and the New York Society of Illustrators. Visit him on the Web at troyhowelletc.com or follow him on Twitter at @TroyHow11.

KARL JAMES MOUNTFORD has been drawing, painting, and generally making a mess since he was a kid. Born in Germany, he was brought up in the UK, and currently lives in Wales, where his sketchbooks rarely get a day of. This is his first picture book.