WRITER

Anna Leonowens

1831 - 1915

Photo of Anna Leonowens

Icon of person Anna Leonowens

Anna Harriette Leonowens (born Ann Hariett Emma Edwards; 5 November 1831 – 19 January 1915) was an Anglo-Indian or Indian-born British travel writer, educator, and social activist. She became well known with the publication of her memoirs, beginning with The English Governess at the Siamese Court (1870), which chronicled her experiences in Siam (modern Thailand), as teacher to the children of the Siamese King Mongkut. Leonowens's own account was fictionalised in Margaret Landon's best-selling novel Anna and the King of Siam (1944), as well as adaptations for other media such as Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1951 musical The King and I. During the course of her life, Leonowens also lived in Western Australia, Singapore and Penang, the United States, Canada and Germany. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Anna Leonowens has received more than 1,470,799 page views. Her biography is available in 27 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 24 in 2019). Anna Leonowens is the 1,687th most popular writer (down from 1,403rd in 2019), the 216th most popular biography from India (down from 161st in 2019) and the 37th most popular Indian Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.5M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 57.52

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 27

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 4.07

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.19

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

The Romance Of The Harem
Social life and customs, History, Fiction
1873
The English Governess at the Siamese Court
2006
Life And Travel In India
Description and travel, Social life and customs
1884
Siamese harem life
Social life and customs, Harems
1952
The English governess at the Siamese Court
1980

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Anna Leonowens ranks 1,687 out of 7,302. Before her are Henri de Régnier, Otfried Preußler, Jean-Jacques Ampère, François Pierre La Varenne, Eliza Orzeszkowa, and James Clavell. After her are Eustathius of Thessalonica, Branwell Brontë, Hannah Szenes, R. L. Stine, Arseny Tarkovsky, and Marcel Schwob.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1831, Anna Leonowens ranks 34. Before her are Isabella Bird, Constantin Meunier, Maurice de Hirsch, Ludvig Nobel, Nikolai Ge, and Paul Durand-Ruel. After her are George Victor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Othniel Charles Marsh, Ankō Itosu, Princess Helena of Nassau, Siegfried Marcus, and Philip Sheridan. Among people deceased in 1915, Anna Leonowens ranks 30. Before her are Nadežda Petrović, Konstantin Makovsky, Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria, Edith Cavell, Adèle Hugo, and Karl Goldmark. After her are Julius von Payer, I. L. Peretz, Oswald Külpe, Ankō Itosu, Hans Gross, and Theodor Leschetizky.

Others Born in 1831

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Others Deceased in 1915

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In India

Among people born in India, Anna Leonowens ranks 216 out of 1,861. Before her are Rajesh Khanna (1942), Śāntarakṣita (725), Khudiram Bose (1889), Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (1942), Ibrahim Lodi (1450), and Harivansh Rai Bachchan (1907). After her are Rajendra Chola I (1000), Anna Hazare (1937), Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay (1876), Jamsetji Tata (1839), Rani Durgavati (1524), and Nizamuddin Auliya (1238).

Others born in India

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Among WRITERS In India

Among writers born in India, Anna Leonowens ranks 37. Before her are Dnyaneshwar (1275), B. K. S. Iyengar (1918), Andal (800), Kuvempu (1904), Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (1942), and Harivansh Rai Bachchan (1907). After her are Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay (1876), Mir Taqi Mir (1723), Surdas (1478), Abdul-Qādir Bedil (1642), D. R. Bendre (1896), and Ramdhari Singh Dinkar (1908).

Indian born Writers

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