Occupation Writer Name Agnes Giberne Genre Children's Literature | Period 19th century Nationality English Role Author | |
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Born 19 November 1845
Belgaum, Karnataka, India ( 1845-11-19 ) Died August 20, 1939, Eastbourne, United Kingdom Books Father Aldur, Coulyng Castle - Or - A Knight, The World's Foundati, Under Puritan Rule, The World's Foundati | ||
Agnes Giberne (19 November 1845 in Belgaum, India – 20 August 1939 in Eastbourne, England) was a prolific British author who wrote fiction with moral or religious themes for children and also books on astronomy for young people.
Educated by governesses in Europe and England after her father Major Charles Giberne retired from service in India, Agnes Giberne started publishing didactic novels and short stories with improving themes under her initials A.G., some of it for the Religious Tract Society. Later she used her full name for her fiction, for her well-received works on astronomy and the natural world, and for her biography of the children's writer Charlotte Maria Tucker. Most of her writing was done before 1910.
Giberne was an amateur astronomer who worked on the committee setting up the British Astronomical Association and became a founder-member in 1890. Her popular illustrated book Sun, Moon and Stars: Astronomy for Beginners (1879), with a foreword by Oxford Professor of Astronomy, Charles Pritchard, was printed in several editions on both sides of the Atlantic, and sold 24,000 copies in its first 20 years. Later she wrote a book called "Among the Stars" which, as Giberne explains in the Introduction, is a version of "Sun, Moon and Stars" for younger children. It is about a boy called Ikon who is very interested in the stars. He meets a Professor who explains more about the stars and solar system to Ikon.