Hesba Stretton

Hesba Stretton was Sarah Smith of Shropshire, who took her pen name from her sisters' initials and a village on the map. Jessica's First Prayer, her tale of a beggar child, sold a million and a half copies and was pressed on Russian schools by the Tsar. What she did with the fame matters more: she helped found the society that became the NSPCC, and wrote to shame England about its children.