Annie Fellows Johnston
Annie Fellows Johnston was an American author, best recognized for her influential "Little Colonel" series of children's books, which began with "The Little Colonel" in 1895. Born in Evansville, Indiana, in 1863, Johnston's early life on a farm with her widowed mother and sisters shaped her storytelling perspective. She briefly attended the University of Iowa and began her writing career by publishing poetry and short stories. After marrying and eventually becoming a stepmother, she drew inspiration from her visits to Kentucky, where she crafted the character of Lloyd Sherman, the series' protagonist.
The "Little Colonel" series features Lloyd as a sweet and virtuous young girl who embodies ideals of Southern femininity and family values, navigating melodramatic adventures and societal expectations. Over the years, Johnston published twelve volumes, which were popular among readers, despite their portrayal of outdated attitudes regarding race, gender, and class. Johnston's works, while celebrated in her time for their innocence and moral lessons, have not aged well and are currently out of print. Nevertheless, her contributions to children's literature left a notable impact, inspiring various clubs and memorabilia centered around her beloved characters.
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Annie Fellows Johnston
Writer
- Born: May 15, 1863
- Birthplace: Evansville, Indiana
- Died: October 5, 1931
- Place of death: Pewee Valley, Kentucky
Biography
Annie Fellows Johnston, best known for her Little Colonel series of children’s books, was born in Evansville, Indiana, in 1863. She grew up with her widowed mother and sisters, surrounded by grandparents and cousins, on an Indiana farm outside Evansville. As a young woman, she attended the University of Iowa for a year, did some teaching, published some poetry, and wrote short stories for the Youth’s Companion. In 1888, she married William Johnston, a widower with three children. When he died three years later, she raised her three stepchildren and began to write seriously.
During this time she visited Kentucky, where the children had lived with an aunt, and was inspired by the way of life she found there, which had changed little since before the Civil War. She met a Confederate colonel and his granddaughter, a child who became the model for the heroine of the Little Colonel series. The first book in the series, The Little Colonel (1895), introduces five-year-old Lloyd Sherman. The little girl succeeds in reuniting her mother and grandfather, who had disowned his daughter when she married a Northerner. The story is melodramatic and perpetuates outdated attitudes and prejudices, yet it was solidly popular with readers who were charmed by the character of Lloyd, who is invariably sweet, virtuous, and determined.
The next book in the series, The Little Colonel’s House Party (1900), continues the story of Lloyd’s adventures, focusing on the daily experiences of the young girl and her friends. Lloyd is a fairy-tale character, pretty and sweet, an idealized version of young girlhood. She speaks with a Southern accent, and is an upper-class young lady whose only ambition appears to be a future as a debutante and hostess. Some of her friends, while similarly sweet and patient, have career ambitions as a writer or explicitly express social conscience and integrity. More books followed the career of the Little Colonel and her friends, twelve volumes in all, including The Little Colonel’s Holidays (1901), The Little Colonel at Boarding-School (1903), The Little Colonel’s Christmas Vacation (1905), and The Little Colonel’s Knight Comes Riding (1907).
During these years, Johnston lived in Arizona, California, and Texas for the health of her invalid stepson John, and wrote a book a year. After John’s death in 1910, she returned to Pewee Valley, Kentucky, where she lived until her death in 193l, continuing to write books and stories, including an autobiography, The Land of the Little Colonel: Reminiscence and Autobiography (1929). At the time of her death, her popular series had sold more than a million copies and had inspired girls’ clubs, rings, and rosaries based on the books.
The Little Colonel series consistently displays outdated and condescending attitudes about race, gender, and class. The plots are artificial and based on coincidence and have an unvarying happy ending. Contemporary readers would not tolerate the stereotyped gender and class roles, nor the racism of the books, and they are all out of print. Yet in their day, they were enormously popular, enjoyed by the public and many critics for their idealized vision of childhood and the values of kindness and high moral character.