Anna Leonowens (26 November 1831 – 19 January 1915) was a British travel writer, educator and social activist, known for teaching the wives and children of Mongkut, king of Siam, and for co-founding the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Leonowens's experiences in Siam were fictionalised in Margaret Landon's 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam and in various films and television miniseries based on the book, most notably Rodgers and Hammerst...
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Anna Leonowens (26 November 1831 – 19 January 1915) was a British travel writer, educator and social activist, known for teaching the wives and children of Mongkut, king of Siam, and for co-founding the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Leonowens's experiences in Siam were fictionalised in Margaret Landon's 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam and in various films and television miniseries based on the book, most notably Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1951 hit musical The King and I.
Anna Leonowens was born Anna Harriette Edwards in Ahmadnagar, India on 26 November 1831. She was the second daughter of Sergeant Thomas Edwards of the Sappers and Miners, a former London cabinetmaker, and his Anglo-Indian wife, Mary Anne Glasscott, daughter of a lieutenant in the Bombay Army. In later life Leonowens was estranged from her family and took pains to disguise her humble origins by writing that she had been born a Crawford in Caernarfon and giving her father's rank as captain. By doing so, she...
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