A Story About Fame and Legacy

When I was a young lad, if ever I got a little too ambitious, my mother would say to me.

“You need to come back down to earth.”

Sometimes, when I was being far too ambitious.

“You need to get off your high horse.”

Meaning — stop acting as if you think you are better than others.

An idiom.

I grew up in a time when idioms were popular.

But I had no idea what an idiom was. I was probably not paying attention to the teacher at school.

I think it was my mother’s way of letting me down gently.

Life was regularly a letdown.

I did wonder about the high horse, though.

I lived in an inner city in middle England, so the only time we ever saw a horse was on television. The racing from Newmarket, Chepstow, or some other place that I would only ever see on the magical television screen.

The television also bought us a popular series for children about a horse called Black Beauty. It was based on an original story by writer Anna Sewell. It was published in 1877, and she was paid a grand total of £40.

£40 is not much for writing a book, when you consider all the time and effort. In part because of ill health, it took her several years to write it.

But it was in 1877, and back then it might have been a lot of money.

I had to find out.

So, I checked with an online calculator.

£40 in 1877 is equal to £5,959.08 today.

A decent amount, but not much considering that it was the only book she wrote.

She also died a few months after completing it at the age of 58.

Sewell did not live long enough to see how popular her creation became.

There again, most of that popularity was almost 100 years later, when the TV series appeared.

Is there a lesson here?

If you really have an urge to do something, then you just have to go with it.

You never know what life is going to throw at you.

For Sewell, her book became a classic for children, but she wrote it for adults.

She would never experience any fame for her writing while she was alive.

Over time, it has sold an estimated 50 million copies. 

Thanks for reading! 

Image (free for use) by Sai Sai from Pixabay