BE GLAD FOR EARLY DAY Y A GIRL POWER

Two little girls dominated their particular eras of family entertainment. Both actresses came to define the term "child star."  Both actresses starred in film adaptations a very popular children's books : Shirley Temple in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and Haley Mills in Pollyanna. Both novels were written by prolific writers who are all but forgotten today, but in their era were two of YA's most successful authors - Kate Douglas Wiggin and Eleanor H. Porter. Both Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Pollyanna are enduring characters of a similar nature who both personify, yet rise above typical adolescent female literary characters.

Kate Douglas Wiggin was born September 28,1856 in Philadelphia. She had a happy childhood with her parents and her younger sister Nora, until her father died. Her widowed mother moved herself and her daughters to Maine. Kate was intelligent and talented in both writing and music. Her mother remarried an educator who oversaw Kate's education.

In 1873 the family moved to Santa Barbara due to her stepfather's poor health. Kate relocated to San Francisco to enroll in a teaching program. Kate saw a need for education among San Francisco's poor and immigrant communities, and started a free kindergarten. When she married in 1881, Kate quit teaching us was the custom. She remained dedicated to fundraising for her various kindergartens. After her writing career became lucrative, she used the profits to fund various educational programs and children's charities.

Kate's first husband died unexpectedly ; the two had no children. In 1894 she married again and Kate and her second husband traveled the world. They made their home in Maine and Kate wrote prolifically.  She died in 1923. Kate Douglas Wiggin left a rich legacy in the world of children's education.

Eleanor Emily Hodgman was born in Littleton, New Hampshire on December 9th, 1868. Like Kate Douglas Wiggin, Eleanor Porter was talented in both music and writing at an early age. Both women's educations were sporadic - Eleanor H. Porter left high school due to poor health and finished her education via private tutors. Eleanor H. Porter married a businessman and for 10 years the couple lived various places before settling in Cambridge Massachusetts. They did not have children. After pursuing music for several years Eleanor H. Porter began a writing career that turned out to be prolific and successful. Eleanor H. Porter died May 5th 1920. Her most popular character, Pollyanna, lent her name to slang for an unflaggingly and (somewhat annoyingly) optimistic person.

Both Kate Douglas Wiggins' and Eleanor H Porter's Rebecca and Pollyanna are similar in nature and backstory. Pollyanna is an orphan while Rebecca has a poor family with too many children for her widowed mother to take care of.  Both girls go to live with relations unknown to them in an unfamiliar place. Rebecca has two aunts while Pollyanna has one ; but Rebecca's Aunt Miranda and Pollyanna's Aunt Polly are stern and reluctant to take in a child, but do so as a matter of family duty. Rebecca has a friend and confident in her Aunt Jane, and Pollyanna in her Aunt's maid Nancy. Both girls meet townsfolk, make friends, and become interwoven in town life. Overall both Rebecca and Pollyanna are pleasant, kind, and well liked. Their stories diverge in that Rebecca grows to young womanhood in the course of her novel. Rebecca wants to become a teacher and writer. Aunt Miranda's death gives Rebecca a monetary inheritance as well as farmland to sell to a developer. All of this makes Rebecca financially independent - closing the book on a happy ending.

Pollyanna's story is a bit darker than Rebecca's. Pollyanna has always played The Glad Game - a way to find something to be glad about even in the bleakest of times. The game started when Pollyanna, hoping for a doll from the Christmas barrel, gets crutches. YIKES! Talk about a bummer and brilliant foreshadowing. When Pollyanna is given a tiny attic room with no pictures, she's glad she can see the whole town from her window - cuz kids are into voyeurism? Pollyanna's situation seems dire to modern readers but considering kids as young as 10 worked long hours at back breaking factory jobs, looking out an attic window in a mansion seems like a dreamy way to live. Pollyanna is hit by a car and temporarily loses the use of her legs. She refuses to play the glad game. Icy Aunt Polly thaws out enough to call her old beau, Dr. Chilton, to help Pollyanna walk again. The town rallies behind Pollyanna, Aunt Polly and Dr. Chilton re-kindle their romance, and Pollyanna goes to a clinic to heal. Not as heartwarming as Rebecca and her wads of cash, but don't worry about Pollyanna. The novel had several sequels and was translated into eight languages.

Both novels were adapted to the screen several times. In 1917 Mary Pickford at age 25 played Rebecca ; in 1920 a 28 year old Mary Pickford played Pollyanna - portrayed as age 11 in the book. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm's most famous adaptation was overhauled into a vastly different story to showcase child star Shirley Temple. (Keen eyes will recognize a young Rose deWitt Bukater - Gloria Stewart from Titanic.) Pollyanna's most well known adaptation came in 1960 and brought forth the next most legendary child star - Haley Mills.

Both Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Pollyanna had an important message - life is hard to anyone who lives, regardless of age. Bleakness and despair gets a person nowhere. Both Kate Douglas Wiggin and Eleanor H. Porter saw hardship and disparity around them and use their writing to combat the difficulty they observed. Kate Douglas Wiggin fought society's ills by opening schools. Eleanor H. Porter use social commentary in her novels, disguising social concerns as stories for children, making them easier to understand. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Pollyanna have been made irrelevant in today's world but should be dusted off and revisited as quaint reminders that even in the darkest of times, hope can get you through.

ARTICLES :

Friends of Mt. Auburn. "Eleanor H. Porter (1968-1920)." Mount Auburn Cemetary, 5 May 2012. 

Eleanor H. Porter. Wikipedia.

Kate Douglas Wiggin. Wikipedia.

FURTHER READING :

Pollyanna ~ Eleanor H. Porter

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm ~ Kate Douglas Wiggin

FURTHER VIEWING :

Pollyanna ~ IMDb

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm ~ IMDb

VIDEOS :

Pollyanna {clip of Mary Pickford - entire film available on youtube}

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm {clip of Mary Pickford - entire film available on youtube}

PAUL NEWMAN AND A RIDE HOME

 

When I was 14 I fell in love. He was smart and sensitive. He was loyal and kind. He saved kids from a burning church. He was entirely fictional. His name was Ponyboy Curtis, protagonist of the Y A novel The Outsiders. The only other book boy who had ever lit up my book nerd girl heart was Gilbert Blythe. I knew I had no chance with Gilbert as he belonged to his beloved "Carrots." But Ponyboy was his own person, despite belonging to the Greasers. I pined for a real life Ponyboy, a boy who loved poetry and saw good in the world where others saw hate and strife. Ponyboy didn't dress like Vanilla Ice. (Class of 93 - Go LHS Tigers!) So what if he existed in another era and came to life in 1967, 8 years before I was born? I still, at 49 (in March,) wish I had a real life ADULT Ponyboy, who could quote poetry and take me to the movies - again as a full grown adult, not as a sensitive 14 year old Greaser.

Author Susan Eloise Hinton, born 1948 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was troubled by how the rich popular kids in her high school from socially prominent families - the Socs, behaved toward the lower class poor kids - the Greasers. Hinton began writing The Outsiders when she was 15 and the novel was published when she was 18. She was counselled to credit herself as S. E. Hinton to be seen as more mature - and less female - and therefore more of a serious author to reviewers. In the introduction to the Viking Platinum edition of the novel Hinton wrote "But I didn't just write The Outsiders, I lived it. Looking back, I realize how important it was to me to have another life at that time. To be someone else. To deal with problems I had to face, and write my way to some sort of understanding and coping. This is all in hindsight. At some time, I was mad about the social situation in my high school. I desperately wanted something to read that dealt realistically teenage life."

A bildungsroman, The Outsiders explores the personal journey of Greaser Ponyboy Curtis, his life with his brothers Soda Pop and Darry - who was left in charge of their family after the sudden death of their parents. Hinton wrote from the perspective of a Greaser because most books for young adults presented more of an ideal - ie Soc perspective on life. The Greasers are rough and tumble, poor and misunderstood. But they cling together and fight for each other like family. The Greasers are :

Ponyboy - 14-intelligent-book nerd-sensetive high school student

Soda Pop - 16, high school dropout who works at a gas station - the hot boy of the group

Darry - 20, de facto leader of both Curtis family and the Greasers

Johnny Cade - 16, Ponyboy's best friend, abused by alcoholic parents, sweet natured

Two-Bit Matthews - loves Mickey Mouse, cracking jokes, and stealing stuff

Steve Randle - Soda's best friend - kind of unhinged

Dallas Winston - troubled, volatile, Johnny's caretaker in the gang, the only  Greaser who could make me forget Ponyboy

The Outsiders explores the themes of haves / v / have nots, good / v / bad, and as a bildungsroman - finding your identity and place in the world. The Socs have cars, stylish clothes, money, and social clout but are they truly happy? The Greasers are poor but have a bond that compels them to fight - and in some cases - die for each other. Despite having very little financially or socially, the Greasers still dream and aspire to a better life. Well maybe not Dally, and Two-bit is basically content with just his cartoons.

The novel explores what it means to be a "good" person versus a "bad" person. Ponyboy and Johnny rescue children from a burning church even though they are hiding from the law. They risk both their lives and their freedom, even though society casts them out as delinquents. Cherry Valance, Soc girl and double-agent-for-the-Greasers-spy, falls hard for Dally (oh Cherry honey, I feel ya sister) because he's different from Soc boys - not just because he's a Greaser, but because he's passionate about who and what he cares for. Dally is flawed to be sure, but he looks out for Johnny, offering him care his parents simply can't provide. Darry gave up college and a football scholarship to care for his brothers. These are not the actions of bad people.

Ponyboy, at 14, knows life is tough. He lost both his parents suddenly. But, as a kid, he's protected within the gang. His literal journey to hiding out with Johnny shows him that he can be independent (despite Dally taking him and Johnny to Dairy Queen.) Ponyboy is a character apart from the others - and outsider within his own group. He sees the value in education, and learning about literature and life beyond Greaser-dom. His journey returns him home, wiser and more appreciative of what he has, even, if to outsiders it looks like he doesn't have much. And who exactly are The Outsiders - the Greasers, or those who denigrate them?

I can't talk about the book and not cover the film. A school librarian wrote to Francis Ford Coppola and asked if he would consider adapting the novel into a film. 15 pages of student signatures accompanied the letter. Coppola read the novel and set about casting up and coming young actors. He chose : 

Ponyboy - C. Thomas Howell

Soda Pop - Rob Lowe

Darry - Patrick Swayze

Johnny - Ralph Macchio

Two-Bit - Emilio Estevez

Steve - Tom Cruise

Dallas - Matt Dillon

Cherry - Diane Lane 

Of the cast Dillon and Lane were the most established. The rest would go on to varying levels of Hollywood success, and Rob Lowe - literally - looks exactly the same as he did 40 years ago when the movie was made. Fun fact - S. E. Hinton plays the school nurse. The film was not a critical success, but gained following after the actors' Hollywood profiles rose.

The Outsiders is a universal story of belonging and acceptance. 56 years after its initial publication the novel still resonates. People are still alienated if they don't conform to random social standards. Nice girls still want the bad boy. The smart kid tells the story because he remembers everything and can't forget the anguish and the joy. We are all Outsiders, in one way or another.

ARTICLES :

The Outsiders. Wikipedia. (Novel)

The Outsiders. Wikipedia. (Film)

Hinton, S. E. “Introduction.” Outsiders,The. Viking Books For Young Readers; Platinum Edition, 2006.

FURTHER INTEREST : 

The Outsiders House Museum

VIDEOS :

The Outsiders

WHAT HATH EVE WROUGHT

 

The 1990s gave women Spice Girl infused girl power and grunge tinged Riot Grrrls, but 20 years prior feminism told women not to accept the status quo. Y A literature heralded the wome's lib era in the 1979 Lois Duncan novel Daughters of Eve. The novel tells the story of defunct service club at a small town Michigan High School. Irene Stark, art teacher and women's libber, revives the club and hand picks the new members. Ostensibly in the club to do good works, the members speak out about injustice as they face as teen girls. Irene Stark uses their anger to enact her fury as a scorned woman. As a budding feminist teen I read this book about a jillion times (interchangeably with Duncan's Stranger With My Face.) I could not celebrate Women's History Month without discussing teen girl backlash towards everyday misogyny. But just how feminist was Daughters of Eve really?

Louis Duncan was, by her own account, a shy bookish child. Born in Philadelphia to professional photographer parents, the family moved to Sarasota Florida, so her parents could work as photographers for the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey circus. Duncan attended Duke University, but dropped out to marry her first husband. She wrote over 300 articles for various publications. After her family moved to Albuquerque, Duncan simultaneously taught journalism and earned a bachelor's degree in English.

Duncan had published many Y A novels since the mid 1960s, but her focus shifted to supernatural themes in the 1970s. Her books often echoed real adolescent anguish filtered through ghosts, witches, astral projection, and actual teacher murder. She wrote supernatural Y A novels until the late 1980s. When her youngest daughter Kaitlyn was murdered in 1989, she began to write books for younger children. Duncan wrote Who Murdered My Daughter to push police focus to solving her daughter's murder. Duncan died in 2016 ; In 2021 Albuquerque Police announced the arrest of Kaitlyn's killer.

Women's Lib was a hot topic in the 1970s. Some women spoke out for equality in the boardroom, the sports arena, the classroom, even in the home and bedroom. Other women derided this and believed women should be satisfied as housewives. More than ever before teenage girls were offered more choices for their future. College was easier to attend, certain jobs were no longer seeing strictly as "women's work." Women could indeed bring home the bacon and fry it up in the pan (according to a commercial I was obsessed with as a child.) Daughters of Eve explores varied young women, their future hopes, and how they plan to attain those hopes. The novel also explores how men feel about women women's home, societal, and sexual roles.

The character of Ruth explores the dichotomy of women at home versus  women at work. Ruth's mother takes a job to provide extra income so the family can afford to send Ruth's two older brothers to college. When Ruth says she wants to go to college too, her father finds the notion absurd. She can pay her own way or get married, then take classes after her kids grow older. Ruth points out that her brothers can pitch in with chores and her father pretty much says that will turn his sons gay. The 70s indeed were a stupider time. Ruth is made a housewife as a teenage girl. And what she says is both true and fair and not at all a parade for women's lib.

Ruth's older brother Peter dates Bambi, the "foxiest" girl in school. He has a reputation to uphold (sex) but Bambi doesn't want to end up pregnant. He nearly forces himself on Laura - the chubby girl of the club, thinking she'll be grateful for the attention. Laura sends him off and leaves the club. The girls later get revenge by shaving Peter's head - apt in the era of glorious David Cassidy like cascading manes.

Anne is an artist, and therefore closest to Irene. Anne becomes pregnant and must put aside art school. The pregnancy, coupled with a family tragedy, forces Anne and her boyfriend to marry. In Anne's case her boyfriend is happy with whatever she chooses. He loves her enough to support her no matter what. Irene feels that Anne is naive and ruining her life to accept a life of marriage and motherhood. As her teacher does Irene have a right to influence Anne's future?

The novel is most definitely a feminist one, with scientist girl, athletic girl - and in keeping with Duncan's supernatural bent - a psychic girl. But the girls never feel like cliches or caricatures. They all have unique aspirations and fight their own battles. But Irene becomes a villain as she seeks revenge on male society. To her all men are all the same. The biggest lie a man could tell a woman is "I love you." Irene did the work her boyfriend should have done and he was promoted ahead of her, without giving her credit. Irene becomes a obsessed with punishment and uses the girls to do her bidding, even if it means pitting them against each other.

Some girls get out while they can, others remain loyal and go to extremes to push the club's women positive message. Is the novel truly feminist if women turn against each other, especially at the behest of one woman? The main message of the novel is to not follow a leader blindly. But the novel comes dangerously close to misogyny by showing the girls as revenge bent harpies. But then again, isn't that how feminist are viewed, even today?

ARTICLES :

Daughters of Eve. Wikipedia.

Lois Duncan. Wikipedia.

NEVER TRUST A DORMOUSE

 

The times, they indeed, were "a changin'". The 1960s saw the rise of the counterculture. Nice kids threw off societal norms, used drugs, and danced naked in fields. Parents were terrified their kids would follow suit. In 1971, Go Ask Alice, the "diary" of a young girl pedalled that fear in paperback form - but was it meant to scare kids or parents? 

The book's title Go Ask Alice is a reference to the Jefferson Airplane song White Rabbit ; the song uses the plot of Alice in Wonderland as a metaphor for taking psychedelic drugs. Whether the diarist was named Alice is unclear but I will call her "Alice" for the sake of clarity. "Alice" is a 15-year-old girl whose family moves to a new town. "Alice" can't seem to fit in with the in crowd. Her diary talks about normal teen girl issues : dieting, liking boys, her relationship with her parents - until "Alice" drinks LSD laced cola at a party. Over a weekend she trips on acid and loses her virginity. So begins every parent's nightmare of their daughter :

1 - stealing pills from her grandparents

2 - selling drugs with a friend for their boyfriends

3 - catching those boyfriends engaged in gay sex and realizing those boyfriends were using them to make money 

4 - being raped while on heroin 

5 - coming home only to run away again

6 - performing sex acts for drugs at an outdoor concert 

7 - becoming homeless 

8 - coming back home and kicking drugs

9 - being drugged severely enough to be committed to a psychiatric hospital

10 - kicking drugs, finding a boyfriend 

11 - being found dead by her parents 

ya know, typical teen stuff. ("Alice" manages to run a successful jewelry shop during all that chaos)

The book was a phenomenal success, finding readership amongst both adults and teens. By 1979 the paperback had been reprinted 43 times. Libraries faced high demand for Go Ask Alice especially after the 1973 television movie.  The book remained popular until the 1990s. Go Ask Alice received critical praise, especially because it was "authentic." In 1998 a reviewer called the book "laughably written," citing the speed with which "Alice" becomes addicted as preposterous. The book had been assigned in many schools as an anti-drug teaching tool. Teens reported relating to "Alice's" emotions far more than her urge to take drugs.

The book was championed by Art Linkletter, whose own daughter battle drugs. Beatrice Sparks, a Mormon youth pastor in her fifties, who had worked as a ghostwriter for Art Linkletter's TV show, edited the "diary" of a young female teen drug addict into a book. Sparks claimed the diary was from a real teenage girl, but refused to divulge the girl's identity.  Beatrice Sparks claimed to have been a licensed psychotherapist, but no records of ever been uncovered to back up her claim. Sparks said her work with youth inspired her to help teens in a large scale way. Sparks claimed royalty payments (the book was credited to "anonymous",) but wanted her name on the cover. She began saying she edited a young girl's diary, but added the experience of teens she counselled. Sparks could not produce the actual diary at the basis of Go Ask Alice. Further editions stated the book was a work of fiction.

In 1973 the mother of a real teenager who suffered depression and committed suicide asked Sparks to edit her son's journals into a second teen helping book. Sparks took the mother's earnest plea and produced "Jay's Journal" - the "diary" of a teenage Satanist. (it is at this point I want to stop writing, bleach my brain, and beat the s**t out of Beatrice Sparks' ghost.) "Jay's" family was outraged and claimed Sparks used only 21 of 212 entries to shore up the NOT TRUE Satanism angle. "Jay's Journal" was one of the early influences of the Satanic Panic that followed in the early 1980s.

Sparks then inserted herself into stories about AIDS, gang violence, teen pregnancy, inappropriate teacher / student relationships, eating disorders, and the foster care system. None of Sparks' subsequent books hit as hard as Go Ask Alice. But why did Go Ask Alice resonate in such a big way? Was it because parents wanted insight into their children's lives? Was it because teenagers were curious about drug addiction? Perhaps the book succeeded because the girl was never given a name. She could be the parental reader's daughter, or the daughter of the smug family down the street whose child got into trouble for underage drinking. She could be the girl from your school who disappeared after rumors swirled. 

Go Ask Alice as a novel most definitely of its era. Rehab didn't exist then. Addiction was seen as weakness, not a disease. By 1973, 10 years after the world so JFK shot on TV in their own homes, the world had changed so rapidly life was unrecognizable. Go Ask Alice was fear-mongering to be sure, and of the worst kind. A woman who wanted attention made up a story and packaged it as truth, as an inevitability. If you ask "Alice" she'll tell you all Go Ask Alice will "feed your head" is a ridiculous story.

ARTICLES :

Go Ask Alice. Wikipedia.

Beatrice Sparks. Wikipedia.

T B T : 84, Charing Cross Road

 

"I enclose a list of my most pressing problems. If you have clean secondhand copies of any books on the list, for no more than $5.00 each, will you consider this a purchase order and send them to me? 

Very truly yours, 

Helene Hanff"

So begins a magical tale of a friendship begat from books; indeed magical because who can procure a whole list of books for $5 these days? But it was so in 1949 when New York City writer Helene Hanff wrote to Marks & Co bookstore, 84, Charing Cross Road in London. The letter was answered by Frank Doel, chief buyer for Marks & Co. Doel was able to fill part of the order, and offered alternatives for others. Like any good bibliophile knows finding someone who can resolve your book needs, and gets it, like, really understands those needs, and the satisfaction of filling those needs, and the immediate need for more books, is rare.  Hanff and Doel formed a symbiotic relationship based on the love of books. Though the pair never met in person, their epistolary friendship lasted 19 years, hundreds of books, and a ham.

Helene Hanff, born 1916 in Philadelphia, was exposed to the theater in her early life. She won a scholarship to Temple University, but the money ran out after a year. Hanff became an auto diadact, learning everything she could teach herself through books. Her goal was to become a playwright. She toured the "Straw Hat Circuit," continually writing plays. None of them made their way to the stage. Hanff wrote for television drama series including Hallmark Hall of Fame and The Adventures of Ellery Queen. Once television production moved to Los Angeles Hanff remained in New York and wrote for magazines, and completed a memoir chronicling her time in the theater.

Hanff wrote to various staff at Marks & Co but corresponded mainly with Frank Doel. Marks & Co was an antiquarian Bookshop founded in the 1920s. The store boasted Charlie Chaplin and George Bernard Shaw as customers. Frank Doel, born in 1908, began working at Marks & Co in the mid 1920s - in fact, that was his only job. Doel served in World War II. By all accounts he was a kind, well liked person. Doel married twice and had two daughters, Sheila and Mary. Doel ran Marks & Co after the death of one owner and the advanced age of the other made him retire. Doel suffered a ruptured appendix and died December 22, 1968. 

At that time Hanff had yet to travel to London and meet her epistolary friends. Doel's wife Nora wrote to Hanff "...I was very jealous of you, as Frank so enjoyed your letters." Nora described Doel as "...always explaining and trying to teach me something of books." The store closed in 1970 ; the same year Hanff wrote 84, Charing Cross Road. Hanff traveled to London and visited the empty store in 1971, meeting friends and fans, writing of her time in London in The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street. 84, Charing Cross Road was adapted into a stage play (Hanff's work had finally made it to the stage,) and became a film starring Ann Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins in 1987.

The story of 84, Charing Cross Road remains charming and appealing because it is a friendship based on letters. Of course we still communicate through written word, but Hanff's humor or Doel's genuine desire to please a customer would be lost when filtered through a computer screen via email. Or via text :

Hanff - old bks📕📕📕?

Doel - totes.

H - venmo / paypal ?

D - whtevs best 4 u

H - pdf u list

D - 😁

H - 😉

Hanff truly cared about her friends in London. Hanff's neighbor, a young British woman, told Hanff England was still rationing food (until 1954, 9 years after the end of World War II.) Hanff sent meat (including ham) and even eggs overseas to and Doel his staff. Their correspondence developed overtime, beginning with formal cordiality, and ending with Hanff and Doel's family writing about life, jobs, and money issues. Out of an inquiry came 19 years of friendship.  Hanff said in a letter to a friend traveling to London - "the blessed man who sold me all my books died a few months ago... if you happen to pass by 84 Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me? I owe it so much."