"It was the sweetest, most mysterious-looking place anyone could imagine. The high wall which shut it in were covered with the leafless stems of roses which were so thick that they matted together . . . No wonder it's still, Mary whispered. I am the first person who has spoken in here for ten years."

This is the secret garden, mysterious, walled and locked, that is the center of Frances Hodgson Burnett's beautiful and moving story of a lonely, willful little girl and how she finds friends, health and happiness when she comes to live in a great house on the Yorkshire moors. It is a story that has been loved by boys and girls since its first publication in 1912, never losing its charm, its magic, its deep satisfaction.

Because the story is now recognized and fully established as a modern classic, it seems fitting to produce it in completely new format. Nora S. Unwin, an artist who knows the story's English setting, was chosen as illustrator and she has beautified the book with twenty-six delightful drawings in color and line. 

From the 1949 J.B. Lippincott edition dust jacket