Here is a copy of the form
letter young readers would often receive from Annie Fellows Johnston.
In this excerpt from
Chapter IV, “The
Shadow Club ” from “The Little Colonel
at Boarding School,” Annie Fellows Johnston describes the tremendous
time and expense involved in answering all those letters from fans:
…the
principal found twenty-three letters in the mail-bag one morning,
all addressed to a well-known writer of juvenile stories, whose
books were the most popular in the school. An investigation proved
that because one girl had received his autograph, twenty- three had
followed her example in requesting it, and not one of them had
enclosed a stamp; nor had it occurred to them that an author's time
is too valuable to spend in answering questions, merely to satisfy
the idle curiosity of his readers.
"One stamp is of little value," said the principal, "but multiply it
by the hundreds he would have to use in a year in answering the
letters of thoughtless strangers, who have no claim on him in any
way." Twenty-three girls filed out into the hall after the
principal's little talk that followed, and slipped their letters
from the mail-bag. Ten of them threw theirs into the waste-basket.
The others, who had asked no questions and were more desirous of
obtaining their favourite author's autograph, opened theirs to
enclose an envelope, stamped and addressed; but few more letters of
the kind went out from Lloydsboro Seminary after that.
Was Johnston talking about herself or, by referring
to the author in question as male, was she making a veiled reference to
her friend, who wrote under the pen name
George Madden Martin?
Undoubtedly, Authors Club members discussed both
the joys and tribulations of commercial success. Answering fan mail and
requests for autographs could certainly be counted among the
tribulations.
More letters from Annie Fellows
Johnston
This Site:
Home Page
What's New? Biography of Annie Fellows
Johnston,
Books on Line (Complete
Original Little Colonel Book Series)
The Little Colonel (link to U. Penn))
The
Giant Scissors
Two Little
Knights of Kentucky
The Little Colonel's
House Party
The Little Colonel's
Holidays
The Little Colonel's Hero
The Little Colonel
at Boarding-School
The Little Colonel in
Arizona
The Little
Colonel's Christmas Vacation
The Little Colonel, Maid of
Honor
The Little Colonel's
Knight Comes Riding
Mary Ware, The Little Colonel's
Chum
Mary Ware in Texas
Mary Ware's Promised Land
Check our home page for more titles by AFJ on other sites
The People & Characters:
The Little Colonel, Papa
Jack and Mrs. Sherman, The
Old Colonel, Two Little
Knights of Kentucky,
Two Little Knights of Kentucky(2),
Uncle Sidney & Aunt
Elise, parents of the Two Little Knights of Kentucky,
Grandmother McIntyre,
Aunt Allison, The
Waltons, Rob and Anna
Moore, Betty,
Joyce Ware,
Jack Ware, Mom Beck,
Walker, Katherine Marks,
Gay Melville,
The Lees of Arizona,
Small Parts
Their Final Resting Places
The Places: in Pewee (Lloydsboro) Valley:
Map,
Map 2,
Where it all began, The Locust,
The Beeches
Edgewood,
The Little Colonel's Cottage,
The Railroad Station,
"Lloydsboro Seminary",
Clovercroft, The
Post Office, Churches,
The Haunted House at Hartwell Hollow,
Confederate Home
Rollington,
Minor Places In Old Louisville:
The Culbertson
Mansion, "Home of a Hero" Elsewhere:
The Cuckoo's Nest (Indiana),
Lee's Ranch,
Camelback Mountain &
Hole-in-Rock (Arizona),
San Antonio and
The Little Town of Bauer (Boerne),
Texas,
The Gate of the Giant Scissors (France)
Letters from Annie
Fellows Johnston and "Mrs Walton"
Scrapbook
Links
Cooking with The Little Colonel
Guest Book
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