Eleanor Porter

Just David Eleanor Porter

Eleanor Emily Hodgman Porter (December 19, 1868 - May 21, 1920) was an American novelist, most known for Pollyanna (1913) and Just David (1916).

Eleanor Emily Hodgman was born in Littleton, New Hampshire, on December 19, 1868, the daughter of Llewella French (née Woolson) and Francis Fletcher Hodgman. She was trained as a singer, attending the New England Conservatory for several years. In 1892 she married John Lyman Porter and relocated to Massachusetts, after which she began writing and publishing her short stories and, later, novels. She died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 21, 1920, and was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Porter wrote mainly children's literature, adventure stories, and romance fiction. Her most famous novel is Pollyanna (1913), followed by a sequel, Pollyanna Grows Up (1915).

Her adult novels include The Turn of the Tide (1908), The Road to Understanding (1917), Oh Money! Money! (1918), Dawn (1919), Keith's Dark Tower (1919), Mary Marie (1920) and Sister Sue (1921); her short-story collections include Across the Years (c. 1919), Money, Love and Kate (1923), and Little Pardner (1926).

Porter achieved considerable commercial success: Pollyanna ranked eighth among best-selling novels in the United States during 1913, second during 1914, and fourth during 1915 (with 47 printings between 1915 and 1920); Just David ranked third in 1916; The Road to Understanding ranked fourth in 1917; and Oh Money! Money! ranked fifth in 1918.

Just David, first published by Houghton Mifflin, tells the story of a young boy, David, who must learn to adapt to living with others after the death of his recluse father; along the way, the villagers and his adoptive parents adopt as much or more to him. Though criticized by reviewers as "mush" and "too perfectly lovely, "the novel was very popular in the early half of the twentieth century in middle and high schools, and has recently seen a number of reprints. The novel was transcribed in Braille in 1922, and translated in Chinese (1959) and Russian (2005). (wikipedia.org)