Annie Fellows Johnston (1863–1931)
Author of Joel: A Boy of Galilee
About the Author
Disambiguation Notice:
Some sites say the series has 12 titles and others 13.
Series
Works by Annie Fellows Johnston
The Little Colonel Stories (The Little Colonel; The Giant Scissors; Two Little Knights of Kentucky) (1895) 40 copies
The Little Colonel Stories, Second Series (Ole Mammy's Torment, The Three Tremonts, The Little Colonel in Switzerland) (1931) 4 copies
"Irma in Italy: A Travel Story" 2 copies
BATTERY 2 copies
Cicely 1 copy
the little colonel's chum 1 copy
Rosies sommergjester 1 copy
The Quilt that Jack Built 1 copy
Little Colonel's House Party 1 copy
Rosies valg 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1863-05-15
- Date of death
- 1931-11-05
- Gender
- female
- Education
- University of Iowa
- Occupations
- teacher
private secretary - Relationships
- Bacon, Albion Fellows (sibling)
- Short biography
- Born Annie Julia Fellows, Annie grew up with her mother, brother Erwin and two sisters, Lura & Albion, on a farm in McCutchanville, Indiana, near Evansville. Her father, Albion, a Methodist minister, died when she was only two, but left his influences through his theological books. Annie began writing already as a girl, producing poems and stories imitating those she read in Godsey's Lady's Book, Youth's Companion and St. Nicholas. She was also known to have read every book in her Sunday school library. She attended district school, and even taught a year when she was 17. Her mother was a firm believer in education for women.
Annie attended the University of Iowa for one year (1881-82), then returned to Evansville to teach for three years, and later to work as a private secretary. She traveled for several months through New England and Europe, staying with cousins along the way. The influence of these trips would be seen later in many of her her works. When she returned, she married William L. Johnston (a cousin and a widower with three young children.) He encouraged her to write, and she began contributing stories to periodicals. William died in 1892, leaving Annie a widow with his children to support (she never had any of her own). It was at that time that Annie began her career as a writer. Annie Fellows Johnston received tremendous fame and popularity around the turn of the 20th century as an author of books for children. She is best known for her thirteen book series beginning with The Little Colonel, although she wrote over forty books in all as well as contributed occasional stories to periodicals such as the Youth's Companion.
The illustration in the The Sunday Herald Post, Louisville, Kentucky, December 23, 1928, shows Annie Fellows Johnston around 1928 with the then grown-up Hattie Cochran, the real-life Little Colonel. Most of the characters in Mrs. Johnstons' semi-biographical works were based on actual people, places and experiences. For the Little Colonel Series, Johnston fictionalized Pewee Valley, Kentucky, just outside Louisville, as Lloydsborough Valley. - Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Evansville, Indiana, USA
- Places of residence
- Indiana, USA
Kentucky, USA
Arizona, USA
California, USA
Texas, USA - Place of death
- Pewee Valley, Kentucky, USA
- Burial location
- Pewee Valley, Kentucky, USA
- Disambiguation notice
- Some sites say the series has 12 titles and others 13.
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
Originally published in 1895, The Little Colonel was the first of an extended series of children's novels that chronicle the adventures of young Lloyd Sherman - nicknamed "the Little Colonel" because her fiery temperament and stubborn disposition call to mind similar qualities in her estranged grandfather, a former colonel in the Confederate army - and her friends. In this opening volume of the series, the five-year-old Little Colonel meets her grandfather for the first time, and, despite show more the tensions existing between him and her parents - Colonel Lloyd, having lost his only son, Tom, as well as his arm, in the recent Civil War, had no use for Yankees, and had disowned his only daughter Elizabeth (Lloyd's mother), when she married Jack Sherman of New York - forms a bond of deep affection with him. Will the Little Colonel's love be enough to conquer his pride, however, and reconcile him to his daughter and son-in-law...?
This being a sentimental novel of the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries, there is never much doubt as to the conclusion of the tale, but the process by which that conclusion is reached is not without its charm. Colonel Lloyd is (with a few exceptions) an engaging character despite his flaws, and the Little Colonel is endearing. I did wonder a bit at the author's decision to make her speech so decidedly southern, when (according to the story) she had been raised in New York, and had only come to Lloydsborough some short time before the opening of the story, but leaving that issue aside, her characterization - her penchant for story-telling (and evident fondness for The Three Billy Goats Gruff), her knack for making friends with all and sundry, her passionate temper - was well done. The conclusion itself, while easy enough to predict, is a satisfying affirmation of family love and reconciliation, as well as an oblique portrait of rapprochement between North and South, so recently divided by that bitterest of struggles, the American Civil War.
Read a certain way, The Little Colonel is really a most engaging book, making it easy to see why it (not to mention its many sequels) was so very popular in the early years of the twentieth century. There was even a Shirley Temple film made from it, in 1935. Of course, that "certain way" of reading involves turning a blind eye to the thoroughly racist depictions of all the black characters, who are happily subservient, stupidly superstitious (as witnessed by Mom Beck's conviction that Papa Jack is doomed to die, because of the "signs" she has seen), and speak in the sort of broken dialect often reserved for them in children's stories of the period. It also requires ignoring the frequent occurrence of such racial epithets as "pickaninnies," "darkies," and (to a lesser extent) "n*ggers" in the text.
That such is the way some would like to read the book can be seen by their emphatically (and defensively) glowing reviews, in which they insist either that the book is not racist, or that its racism cannot be held against it, because it was "of the times." I am amused to note that www.littlecolonel.com, a most informative website devoted to Johnston's books, claims that her work has fallen out of favor because contemporary readers don't value "romantic and sentimental wholesomeness" any more, but makes no mention of this other, far more significant objection that said readers might have, or that Johnston's fall from popularity might reflect the (thankfully!) changing racial dynamics of American society.
What then is the contemporary reader, the one who does value the "romantic and sentimental" (yes, yes, I admit it!), but who loathes racism, to do? Should books like The Little Colonel still be read, and by whom? As someone with an interest in the history of American children's books, as well as (more recently) the school-story genre, this is a title I've been meaning to pick up. After all, the Little Colonel series was once immensely popular, and it also includes an example of the school story, in The Little Colonel at Boarding-School. It documents, not necessarily a moment in American history, but a perception of that moment. Or put another way, it helped to create the perception of that moment, and seems to have been part of a new kind of romanticism about the south. All factors that give it great interest for me, as someone with a more academic interest in children's literature, and its social significance. It is also, despite its objectionable content, quite readable (hence the three stars, rather than two, although I'm still debating that point).
I think that this is a book I would recommend to older readers who are interested in the history of American children's literature, in vintage American children's series, or in the depiction of the post Civil War South (and specifically, Kentucky) in said literature and series. I don't know that I would recommend it to young readers, and am thankful that I didn't encounter it as a young person myself. Still, I'm glad to have read it at this point, as I do find it utterly fascinating, and I think I will probably read further in the series. show less
This being a sentimental novel of the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries, there is never much doubt as to the conclusion of the tale, but the process by which that conclusion is reached is not without its charm. Colonel Lloyd is (with a few exceptions) an engaging character despite his flaws, and the Little Colonel is endearing. I did wonder a bit at the author's decision to make her speech so decidedly southern, when (according to the story) she had been raised in New York, and had only come to Lloydsborough some short time before the opening of the story, but leaving that issue aside, her characterization - her penchant for story-telling (and evident fondness for The Three Billy Goats Gruff), her knack for making friends with all and sundry, her passionate temper - was well done. The conclusion itself, while easy enough to predict, is a satisfying affirmation of family love and reconciliation, as well as an oblique portrait of rapprochement between North and South, so recently divided by that bitterest of struggles, the American Civil War.
Read a certain way, The Little Colonel is really a most engaging book, making it easy to see why it (not to mention its many sequels) was so very popular in the early years of the twentieth century. There was even a Shirley Temple film made from it, in 1935. Of course, that "certain way" of reading involves turning a blind eye to the thoroughly racist depictions of all the black characters, who are happily subservient, stupidly superstitious (as witnessed by Mom Beck's conviction that Papa Jack is doomed to die, because of the "signs" she has seen), and speak in the sort of broken dialect often reserved for them in children's stories of the period. It also requires ignoring the frequent occurrence of such racial epithets as "pickaninnies," "darkies," and (to a lesser extent) "n*ggers" in the text.
That such is the way some would like to read the book can be seen by their emphatically (and defensively) glowing reviews, in which they insist either that the book is not racist, or that its racism cannot be held against it, because it was "of the times." I am amused to note that www.littlecolonel.com, a most informative website devoted to Johnston's books, claims that her work has fallen out of favor because contemporary readers don't value "romantic and sentimental wholesomeness" any more, but makes no mention of this other, far more significant objection that said readers might have, or that Johnston's fall from popularity might reflect the (thankfully!) changing racial dynamics of American society.
What then is the contemporary reader, the one who does value the "romantic and sentimental" (yes, yes, I admit it!), but who loathes racism, to do? Should books like The Little Colonel still be read, and by whom? As someone with an interest in the history of American children's books, as well as (more recently) the school-story genre, this is a title I've been meaning to pick up. After all, the Little Colonel series was once immensely popular, and it also includes an example of the school story, in The Little Colonel at Boarding-School. It documents, not necessarily a moment in American history, but a perception of that moment. Or put another way, it helped to create the perception of that moment, and seems to have been part of a new kind of romanticism about the south. All factors that give it great interest for me, as someone with a more academic interest in children's literature, and its social significance. It is also, despite its objectionable content, quite readable (hence the three stars, rather than two, although I'm still debating that point).
I think that this is a book I would recommend to older readers who are interested in the history of American children's literature, in vintage American children's series, or in the depiction of the post Civil War South (and specifically, Kentucky) in said literature and series. I don't know that I would recommend it to young readers, and am thankful that I didn't encounter it as a young person myself. Still, I'm glad to have read it at this point, as I do find it utterly fascinating, and I think I will probably read further in the series. show less
Racist, twee, and saccharin-sticky. From the opening scene with the "trawbewwies" right up to the end it was torture of the most sentimental sort. I couldn't stop, it was such a twain weck!
Very cute. Of course I was seeing Shirley Temple throughout, but it might have been written for her - spunky, singing baby (the Little Colonel turns 6 in the course of the story). I really should see the movie and sees if it matches. Anyway. Cute story, reasonably restrained racism (which is about all you could expect from a book written in that time), nice moral that isn't _too_ thumpy-about-the-ears. I was delighted to realize there's a whole series of Little Colonel books, as she grows up.
This was a very sweet classic children's book about two young children, Christmas and family. I really enjoyed the Librivox audio edition and will probably read this again at Christmas.
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- 60
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- Popularity
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- Rating
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