Call Number:

C0113

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 14 boxes
• 5.00 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Donald and Robert M. Dodge Collection of Mary Mapes Dodge; Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1814-1961 (inclusive) and 1866-1936 (bulk)

Creator:

Dodge, Mary Mapes (1830-1905)

Abstract:

Mary Mapes Dodge was an author and editor of St. Nicholas magazine. This collection contains manuscripts, correspondence, financial records, and photographs of Mary Mapes Dodge, as well as an unfinished biography of her by Spencer Mapes.

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 contains manuscripts, correspondence, financial records, and photographs of Mary Mapes Dodge, as well as an unfinished biography of her by Spencer Mapes--collected by Donald and Robert Mapes Dodge. Manuscripts of Mary Mapes Dodge include 4 pages of Donald and Dorothy, 11 pages of Hans Brinker, and 7 poems. In addition, there are poems by John Greenleaf Whittier, Charles Henry Webb, Celia Thaxter, Emily Huntington Miller, and Dora Read Goodale. Correspondents include Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Booker T. Washington. Included in the correspondence relating to the biography of Mary Mapes Dodge are letters from Faith Baldwin, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Albert Payson Terhune, and Clement Wood.