Call Number:

C1324

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.2 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

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

Date:

1873-1904 (inclusive)

Creator:

Princeton University. Library. Special Collections and Dodge, Mary Mapes, 1830-1905

Form:

Correspondence -- 19th century

Abstract:

Consists of selected correspondence of Mary Mapes Dodge, the American children's writer.

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 selected correspondence of Mary Mapes Dodge, the American children's writer and editor. In a letter to Mary Louise Booth, editor of Harper's Bazaar, Dodge asks Booth to publish one of her poems anonymously. Writing to "Mrs. Coates," Dodge praises Helen Keller's book. Also included is a letter to Arthur Stedman, praising his "biographies" which he wrote for his father's work Library of American Literature, as well as a dictated letter to Miss Laura M. Wachschlager regarding Dodge's novel Hans Brinker. In addition, there are five letters from the English-American playwright Frances Hodgson Burnett, in which she inquires about the proofs of her children's story Little Lord Fauntleroy for publication in St. Nicholas, and an incomplete letter to Dodge, in which she suggests a new serial for St. Nicholas and a new children's book.