According to the new bio Bombay Anna, the real-life King and I starred one Anna Harriet Edwards Leonowens, an Englishwoman who not only taught the children, wives and concubines of the King of Siam, but was a distinguished writer, feminist and abolitionist. Leonowens was outspoken in her objections to the cruelty towards wives and slaves. When she wrote her 1870 memoir, The English Governess at the Siamese Court, it caused a sensation: it was banned in Siam and criticized by those who felt her description of her employer was ungrateful. But the story was compelling enough to capture the world's imagination and ensure Anna's place dancing with dignity through history. [Philly.com]