Authorial+Background

Jane Austen was born on 16 December, 1775, near Basingstoke, in Hampshire. To amuse themselves, her and her sister wrote and performed plays and charades, and even as a little girl Jane was encouraged to write. The reading that she did of the books in her father's library gave her information for the short satirical sketches she wrote as a girl. By the age of 14 she wrote her first novel, //Love and Freindship//. After her father's death, her, her mother and sister would move between brothers before settling with her brother Edward//.// Before her death, her stories wouldn't say her name but would say "By a Lady". Austen died on July 18, 1817. She was 41 years old. She is buried in Westchester cathedral.

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