Black Beauty

Anna Sewell's moving story is one of the best-loved animal adventures ever written, this Penguin Threads edition of Black Beauty includes a new foreword by Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley, cover art by Jillian Tamaki and deluxe French flaps.

Commissioned by award-winning Penguin art director Paul Buckley, the Penguin Threads series debuts with cover art by Jillian Tamaki for three gift-worthy Penguin Classics. Sketched out in a traditional illustrative manner, then hand stitched using needle and thread, the final covers are sculpt embossed for a tactile, textured, and beautiful book design that will appeal to the Etsy(tm)-loving world of handmade crafts.

The Penguin Classics Deluxe series has been celebrated for its unique packaging and innovative design. The books of the Penguin Threads series will make truly special gifts and will be welcome additions to any craft or literature lover's collection.

About The Author

ANNA MARY SEWELL (1789-1884) was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England to Isaac Phillip Sewell and Mary Wright Sewell. Educated at home until age twelve, Sewell attended school for the first time after her family moved to Stoke Newington. At fourteen, she slipped while walking home from school and severely injured both of her ankles. Most likely due to inappropriate treatment of her injuries, Sewell remained disabled for the rest of her life and could not walk or stand without a crutch. Her need for horse-drawn carriages and her constant close proximity to horses lead to her increased awareness and concern for their humane treatment. Sewell wrote BLACK BEAUTY, her only published work, from 1871 to 1877 amid declining health. Her goal was to encourage the kind treatment of horses, though the work has remained popular as a children's classic. Sewell died on April 25, 1878, five months after BLACK BEAUTY's publication. JANE SMILEY (foreword) is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A THOUSAND ACRES and more than ten other works of fiction, as well as three works of nonfiction, including a critically acclaimed biography of Charles Dickens. In 2001 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in northern California.