Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions, the Autobiography of a Horse is an 1877 novel by English au-thor Anna Sewell. It was composed in the last years of her life, during which she was bedridden and seriously ill. The novel became an immediate best-seller, with Sewell dying just five months after its publication, but having lived long enough to see her only novel become a success. With fifty million copies sold, Black Beau-ty is one of the best-selling books of all time.