Read an excerpt from "Unearthing The Secret Garden"

Writers don’t always reveal crucial parts of their personalities in their fiction.

But sometimes they do — and that’s true of Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Fortunately, the revelatory work is The Secret Garden, and the personality trait is a love of plants and nature (as opposed to, say, a deep childhood poverty as was shown in A Little Princess).

Author Marta McDowell explores this connection in her upcoming release, Unearthing The Secret Garden: The Plants and Places That Inspired Frances Hodgson Burnett.

The book, which comes out Tuesday, is the latest portrait of an author inspired by nature from McDowell; previous subjects include Beatrix Potter, Emily Dickinson, and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Literary Hub has an excerpt of Unearthing The Secret Garden, featuring a lengthy passage from Burnett herself, for your enjoyment.

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