Her Benny - Illustrated Edition

U.S.A.: John Haines Publishing, 2006. Facsimile Reproduction . Trade Paperback. As New. 6" x 9. 262 Pages. This is a facsimile edition of the lesser known 1890 Illustrated Edition. The initial publication was under an 1879 copyright. In the author's own words, he tells the reader in the preface the publishers decided the book needed a new overcoat, and so here is Her Benny (A Tale of Victorian Liverpool) - the 1890 De Luxe Illustrated Edition. The illustrator is not known. This book is an unapologetically Protestant Christian flavoured tale of two Liverpool waifs, young brother and sister, Benny and Nelly Bates. They are starved and abused and sent out to scrape as best a living as they can: Nelly selling matches, Benny portering at the ferry terminal. But things get so bad, that Benny, after his young fragile sister gets a terrible beating, decides enough is enough, takes whatever provisions he can find, grabs his sister by the hand, and leaves home. The author, the Reverend Silas Kitto Hocking was born in Cornwall in 1850. By the time he was an adult he became an ordained Methodist minister and it was in this ministry that he lived around Liverpool, Southport and Oldham. He was a published author, some titles doing well, others poorly, and some not in book form ever but were serialisations in various magazines and periodicals. But one book, inspired by the poverty stricken families and waifs of inner city Liverpool of the 1870s, was to make him and the book famous internationally. Silas K Hocking became the first ever author to reach and surpass the million copies sold in an author's own lifetime. He died at age 85 in 1935. Interestingly though, he only made a total of thirty pounds in author's fees from Her Benny. The illustrations have been maximised, many enlarged and some digitally improved.