{"id":11728,"date":"2025-12-12T11:00:59","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T16:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=11728"},"modified":"2026-03-11T10:33:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T14:33:34","slug":"from-the-archives-sara-crewe-or-what-happened-at-miss-minchins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=11728","title":{"rendered":"From the Archives: Sara Crewe, or What Happened at Miss Minchin\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"

This blog post was written by Maris Tiller, SCRC Research Services GRA. Maris\u00a0<\/em>a Graduate student pursuing her Master\u2019s in Creative Writing with a concentration in fiction.<\/p>\n

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Anyone familiar with the realm of children\u2019s literature will know Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of the classic The Secret Garden. Known and beloved among her works as well is A Little Princess, the story of a little girl named Sara who, having her wealth stripped from her after her father\u2019s untimely death, is forced into servitude at the boarding school she attends in order to keep herself off the streets.<\/p>\n

What people might not know about this classic tale is that it was originally serialized as a short story in St. Nicholas Magazine under the title, \u201cSara Crewe, or What Happened at Miss Minchin\u2019s\u201d.<\/p>\n

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St. Nicholas Magazine was a monthly literary magazine that published literature for children. The first editor of the magazine, Mary Mapes Dodge, was a children\u2019s author herself, known for her work Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates. Over the magazine\u2019s seventy-year run, Dodge published the likes of Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, and Joel Chandler Harris, just to name a few. The magazine also encouraged young writers to submit their work for the possibility of a cash prize, thus allowing many famous writers \u2013 such as Edna St. Vincent Millay and F. Scott Fitzgerald \u2013 to get their start.<\/p>\n

\u201cSara Crewe, or What Happened at Miss Minchin\u2019s\u201d ended up being a very popular story.<\/p>\n

One year after its serialization in 1887, the story was published in book form, illustrated by well-known children\u2019s illustrator and frequent collaborator of Burnett\u2019s, Reginald Bathurst Birch.<\/p>\n

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This is not the expanded version of the story that would come fifteen years later, but rather the story as it appeared in the magazine. Burnett would not change the short story until her publisher encouraged her, due to the popularity of the story, to include bits of backstory and characters that had been left out.<\/p>\n

This version of Sara\u2019s story begins with the death of her father. Unlike the full novel, which includes her first year at Miss Minchin\u2019s school and the friends she makes there, this version focuses on Sara\u2019s isolation from others. This makes it all the more impactful when, by the end of the story, she is rescued by her father\u2019s old friend. The message of the story, though, remains very much the same, encouraging children to have kindness and optimism during hard times.<\/p>\n

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Also included in the back of this book are advertisements for other popular children\u2019s literature, including the aforementioned Hans Brinker, collections of popular myths simplified for young people, and sets of the complete works of Jules Verne. In these advertisements, there is a feeling of literary encouragement.<\/p>\n

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With engaging illustrations and a compelling story, it is no wonder that \u201cSara Crewe\u201d became popular. After the publication of this version of the story, there would be a stage version in 1902 under the title A Little Un-Fairy Princess. Much of what came to be in the novel version, like the girls Sara befriends in her first year who stick by her\u00a0through her hardship, are introduced here. Regardless, the beginnings of this beloved story are crucial to the history of children\u2019s literature, and the changes to the work, major and minor, are fascinating to observe.<\/p>\n

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Follow SCRC on Social Media and look out for future posts on our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Instagram<\/a>, and\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>\u00a0accounts. To search the collections\u00a0held at Special Collections Research Center, go to our\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0and browse the finding aids by subject or title. You may also e-mail\u00a0us at\u00a0speccoll@gmu.edu<\/a>\u00a0or call 703-993-2220 if you would like to schedule an appointment, request materials, or if you have questions.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog post was written by Maris Tiller, SCRC Research Services GRA. Maris\u00a0a Graduate student pursuing her Master\u2019s in Creative Writing with a concentration in fiction.   Anyone familiar with the realm of children\u2019s literature will know Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of the classic The Secret Garden. Known and beloved among her works as well […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101024,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[326,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rare-books-2","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Ep5i-33a","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11850,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=11850","url_meta":{"origin":11728,"position":0},"title":"From the Archives:\u00a0Ozma\u00a0of Oz\u00a0by L. Frank Baum\u00a0","author":"Meghan Glasbrenner","date":"March 31, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"This blog post was written by Maris Tiller, SCRC Research Services GRA. Maris is a Graduate student pursuing her Master\u2019s in Creative Writing with a concentration in fiction. \u00a0 The\u00a0classic children\u2019s book\u00a0The Wonderful Wizard of Oz\u00a0by L. 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