Call Number:

C0029

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

1 box

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); St. Nicholas Correspondence of Mary Mapes Dodge, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1867-1903 (inclusive)

Creator:

Dodge, Mary Mapes (1830-1905)

Form:

Women novelists. -- 19th century -- Correspondence and Women poets. -- 19th century -- Correspondence

Abstract:

Consists of letters to Mary Mapes Dodge in her capacity as editor of the successful New York City children's magazine St. Nicholas from contributors and literary friends.

Mary Mapes Dodge was an American children's writer and editor, best known for her novel Hans Brinker; or The Silver Skates, A Story of Life in Holland. In 1859 she began writing and editing, working with her father to publish two magazines, the Working Farmer and the United States Journal. Within a few years she had great success with a collection of short stories ns2:titled The Irvington Stories (1864). Dodge then wrote Hans Brinker, which became an instant bestseller. Later on she was an associate editor of Health and Home, edited by Harriet Beecher Stowe. She had charge of the household and children's departments of that paper. She became an editor in her own right with the children's magazine St. Nicholas, published by Charles Scribner' Sons, for she was able to solicit stories from a number of well-known writers including Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, and Robert Louis Stevenson. St. Nicholas became one of the most successful magazines for children during the second half of the nineteenth century, with a circulation of almost 70,000.. Dodge is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery, at Hillside, New Jersey.

The collection consists of letters to Dodge in her capacity as editor of St. Nicholas magazine from contributors and literary friends. Included are autograph letters of Amelia E. Barr, John Burroughs, Susan Coolidge, Rebecca Harding Davis, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Constance Cary Harrison, Bret Harte, William Dean Howells, H.H. (Helen Hunt), Rudyard Kipling, Lucy Larcom, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Mrs. Oliphant, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Ruth McEnery Stuart, Celia Thaxter, Edith Matilda Thomas, and John Greenleaf Whittier.