Jean Webster’s eight novels, which mostly focus on adolescent girls, continue to enjoy a wide readership among people in Japan and South Korea, much like ANNE OF GREEN GABLES. As a result, Yuki Sato, Culture Editor at Tokyo’s MAINICHI SHIMBUN, has been working for some time on a Webster biography, for which she has done research at the MTP in Berkeley,  the Vassar College archives, and elsewhere. Though her book probably will be published in Japanese, she also writes in English as may be seen in this article: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/55a/404.html Her email address is: [log in to unmask]

 Meanwhile, in addition to a fairly substantial Wikipedia piece, there is a privately printed book length biography by Alan Simpson who, when he retired from Vassar’s presidency, sequestered the Jean Webster collection there until he finished this book.
 
Jean Webster was one of the guests at mark Twain’s 70th birthday party, where she is pictured in one of the plates published in Harper & Brothers’ Souvenir of that occasion.

Mary Boewe


----- Original Message -----
Daddy Long-Legs is also a book, I think. My mother loved it when she was yo=
ung; was always trying to get me to read it.  I knew about the connection w=
ith Twain, but I don't think anyone has seriously followed it up, so yes, B=
arb Schmidt is right; there's a paper topic here!  Someone should do it! --=
 susan harris

Sent from my iPad

On Jan 13, 2013, at 7:36 PM, "Gretchen Sharlow" <[log in to unmask]> wrot=
e:

> Hey People, there's a paper here for the Elmira Conference..... See you i=
n August!
> ---- John Davis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:=20
>> *Daddy Long-legs *was the basis of several films beginning in the silent
>> era, one with Mary Pickford, including a Fred Astaire musical in the
>> fifties. I didb't know the Mark Twain connection.
>>=20
>> On Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 3:46 PM, Wesley Britton <[log in to unmask]> wr=
ote:
>>=20
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>> Editing a biography of actor Ruth Chatterton, I ran across a dmention o=
f
>>> Mark Twain's niece,  Jean Webster.  Apparently, actor/producer Henry Mi=
ller
>>> had picked up a copy of Webster's popular book Daddy Long-Legs at a
>>> newsstand and contacted the authorh about adapting it for the stage in
>>> 1914.
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>> The book has some comments on Webster, stressing Jean Webster combined
>>> writing with social activism.  "The story was inspired by her work on
>>> behalf
>>> of orphans.  She drew her material from monthly visits to orphanages in=
 New
>>> England."
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>> Variety praised, "Daddy Long-Legs is a full-grown comedy in which the
>>> author
>>> has blended a laugh and a tear in almost every line."[i]
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>> Apparently, the play was quite a success for several years and perhaps
>>> helped pave the way for the sufferage movement. Never heard of it
>>> before-anyone know more?
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>> Dr. Wesley Britton
>>>=20
>>> Co-host, Dave White Presents
>>>=20
>>> www.audioentertainment.org/dwp
>>>=20
>>> Spywise website
>>>=20
>>> www.spywise.net
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>>  _____
>>>=20
>>> [i] Review of Daddy Long-Legs, Variety, February 27, 1914
>>=20
>>=20
>>=20
>> --=20
>> John H. Davis, Ph.D.
>> Professor of English
>> Department of Language and Literature
>> Chowan University
>> Murfreesboro, North Carolina 27855
>=20

-- 
Mary S. Boewe
Fearrington Village 

Mailing Address:
320 Fearrington Post 
Pittsboro, NC 27312-8560 

(919) 542-0934