Switch to EncyclopediaClose XJOHNSTON, ANNIE FELLOWS: 1863-1931. (See also sketch of Albion Fellows Bacon.)
"Annie Fellows Johnston … author of books for children, was born in
Evansville, Ind., of pioneer
stock… One of the grandparents of her mother, Mary
Erskine … was a Scotch Covenanter who emigrated from Ireland to join the New Harmony Colony and eventually settled in the frontier
hamlet of Evansville. Her father, Albion Fellows, a Methodist minister
whose parents were early Illinois settlers from New Hampshire, died when Annie was two years old. She and her two sisters grew up in
rural MacCutchanville, not far from Evansville. Here she lived a wholesome country
life, listened to stories of pioneer endeavor and accomplishment, learned to work
with a conscientious regard for duty, attended the district school, read the entire
Sunday school library, the sentimental GODEY'S
LADY'S BOOK, ST. NICHOLAS, and the YOUTH'S COMPANION, and wrote stories and poems in imitation of
those she read.
"When she was seventeen she taught for one term in the district school which
she had been attending. After a year of study at the University of
Iowa, 1881-82, she taught in
the public school of Evansville for three years and then when teaching threatened her health, she
worked in an office. She traveled for a few months in New England and in Europe. But
whether in the school room or the office, in college or traveling she lived in the
midst of cousins whose number was legion and whose social environment and religious
beliefs were similar to her own. It is therefore not surprising that she married a
cousin, William L. Johnston, a widower with three young
children (1888). He encouraged her to write, and during
the three years of their married life she contributed occasional stories to the
YOUTH'S COMPANION. Her husband's death
in 1892 and the necessity of supporting his children gave
a forced impetus to her writing. Her first book, Big
Brother, was published in 1893. After the
completion of Joel: a Boy of Galilee, in 1895, Mrs. Johnston visited in the Pewee Valley,
near Louisville, Ky., where her stepchildren had
lived with relatives. A spirited little girl who resembled a colonel of the old
school and the atmosphere of leisure and of aristocratic living which still lingered
in the valley from the days of slavery so caught her fancy that when she returned to Evansville she depicted them in The Little Colonel (1895), the first of a series of twelve books.
"Pewee Valley became the setting not only of many of her most popular books
but of her own life. She moved there in 1898 and it
remained home to her until her death more than thirty years later. From 1901 until her stepson died in 1910 she made a temporary home for him where the climate would benefit his
health, first in Arizona, then in California, and, for eight years, in Texas. Her sojourn in the Southwest gave her
the setting for several of her stories… Without superior gifts of
imagination, keen and balanced observation, or
psychological acuteness, Mrs. Johnston entertained thousands of
children and inspired many of them to emulate the integrity of her characters, who
lived in a world where good intentions prevail and where simple virtues are
glorified. By drawing upon her own idealized childhood and the scenes and people she
loved, she created a glamour about her characters which charmed her youthful readers
…"
Condensed from V. L. S., Dictionary of American Biography,
Vol. X.
- Big Brother. Boston, 1894.
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Close X - Joel: a Boy of Galilee. Boston,
1895.
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Close X - The Little Colonel. Boston,
1896.
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Close X - In League with Israel: A Tale. New
York, 1896.
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Close X - Songs Ysame (withAlbion Fellows Bacon). Boston, 1897.
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Close X - Ole Mammy's Torment.
Boston, 1897.
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Close X - The Gate of the Giant Scissors.
Boston, 1898. (Reissued in
1906 under title, Giant Scissors.)
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Close X - Two Little Knights of Kentucky, Who Were the Little
Colonel's Neighbors. Boston, 1899.
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Colonel's Neighbors" by JOHNSTON, ANNIE FELLOWS: 1863-1931. (See also sketch of Albion Fellows Bacon.) in:
Close X - The Story of Dago. Boston, 1900.
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Close X - The Little Colonel's House Party.
Boston, 1901.
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Close X - The Little Colonel's Holidays.
Boston, 1901.
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Close X - Asa Holmes; or, at the Cross-Roads.
Boston, 1902.
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Close X - Cicely and Other Stories.
Boston, 1903.
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Close X - The Little Colonel's Hero: Music by Albion Fellows
Bacon. Boston, 1903.
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Bacon" by JOHNSTON, ANNIE FELLOWS: 1863-1931. (See also sketch of Albion Fellows Bacon.) in:
Close X - Aunt Liza's Hero, and Other Stories.
Boston, 1903.
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Close X - Little Colonel Stories. Boston,
1904
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Close X - Flip's "Islands of
Providence." Boston, 1904.
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Providence" by JOHNSTON, ANNIE FELLOWS: 1863-1931. (See also sketch of Albion Fellows Bacon.) in:
Close X - Little Colonel at Boardlng-School.
Boston, 1904.
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Close X - The Quilt That Jack Built.
Boston, 1904.
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Close X - The Little Colonel in Arizona.
Boston, 1905.
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Close X - In the Desert of Waiting: the Legend of Camelback
Mountain. Boston, 1905.
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Mountain" by JOHNSTON, ANNIE FELLOWS: 1863-1931. (See also sketch of Albion Fellows Bacon.) in:
Close X - Three Weavers: a Fairy Tale for Fathers and Mothers as well
as for their Daughters. Boston, 1905.
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as for their Daughters" by JOHNSTON, ANNIE FELLOWS: 1863-1931. (See also sketch of Albion Fellows Bacon.) in:
Close X - Keeping Tryst. Boston, 1906.
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Close X - Little Colonel: Maid of Honor.
Boston, 1906.
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Close X - Mildred's Inheritance; Just Her Way; Ann's
Own Way. Boston, 1906.
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Own Way" by JOHNSTON, ANNIE FELLOWS: 1863-1931. (See also sketch of Albion Fellows Bacon.) in:
Close X - Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation.
Boston, 1906.
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Close X - Legend of the Bleeding Heart.
Boston, 1907.
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Close X - Little Colonel's Knight Comes Riding.
Boston, 1907.
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Close X - Mary Ware, the Little Colonel's Chum.
Boston, 1908.
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Close X - Rescue of the Princess Winsome: a Fairy Play for Old and
Young. Boston, 1908.
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Young" by JOHNSTON, ANNIE FELLOWS: 1863-1931. (See also sketch of Albion Fellows Bacon.) in:
Close X - The Jester's Sword.
Boston, 1909.
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Close X - Little Colonel's Good Times Book.
Boston, 1909.
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Close X - The Little Colonel Doll Book, Representing Characters and
Costumes from the Books of the Little Colonel Series.
Boston, 1910.
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Costumes from the Books of the Little Colonel Series" by JOHNSTON, ANNIE FELLOWS: 1863-1931. (See also sketch of Albion Fellows Bacon.) in:
Close X - Mary Ware in Texas. Boston,
1910.
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Close X - Travelers Five Along Life's Highway: Jimmy, Gideon
Wiggan, the Clown, Wexley Snathers, Bap Sloan.
Boston, 1911.
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Wiggan, the Clown, Wexley Snathers, Bap Sloan" by JOHNSTON, ANNIE FELLOWS: 1863-1931. (See also sketch of Albion Fellows Bacon.) in:
Close X - Mary Ware's Promised Land.
Boston, 1912.
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Close X - Miss Santa Claus of the Pullman. New
York, 1913.
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Close X - Mary Ware Doll Book: a Companion Volume to the Little Colonel
Doll Book; Representing Characters and Costumes from the Books of the Little
Colonel Series. Boston, 1914.
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Doll Book; Representing Characters and Costumes from the Books of the Little
Colonel Series" by JOHNSTON, ANNIE FELLOWS: 1863-1931. (See also sketch of Albion Fellows Bacon.) in:
Close X - Georgina of the Rainbows. New
York, 1916.
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Close X - Little Colonel Story Hour Books.
Boston, 1917.
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Close X - Georgina's Service Stars. New
York, 1918.
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Close X - Little Man in Motley. Boston,
1918.
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Close X - Story of the Red Cross as told to the Little Colonel.
Boston, 1918.
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Close X - It was the Road to Jericho. New
York, 1919.
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Close X - The Road of the Loving Heart.
Boston, 1922.
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Close X - The Land of the Little Colonel; Reminiscence and
Autobiography. Boston, 1929.
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Autobiography" by JOHNSTON, ANNIE FELLOWS: 1863-1931. (See also sketch of Albion Fellows Bacon.) in:
Close X - Little Colonel Stories; Second Series.
Boston, 1930.
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Close X - For Pierre's Sake, and Other Stories.
Boston, 1934.
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