Description

[from inside flap of Grosset & Dunlap 1912 dj]

This is an appealing, unforgettable story of "Judy,", who grows up to seventeen in the John Grier Home for Orphans. Then a wealthy unknown, in reality one of the directors of the home, sends her to college, with plenty of pretty clothes and pocket money, and Judy takes to good time and culture with all the enthusiasm of an intense young nature. Her letters to "Daddy-Long-Legs" -- her unknown benefactor -- kindle the romance of his life and hers, and when the wealthy unknown falls in love with the adorable "Judy" -- now a cultured young lady, she too discovers that her is more than just a mysterious benefactor -- a truly human and very lovable man.

The illustrations are quaint sketches by the author.

The dramatic version has run a full season in both New York and Chicago.

Notes

This is it -- the book that kicked off my love for vintage reads. I bought the Grosset & Dunlap edition for $3 (in pencil on the flyleaf) in a used bookstore in Philadelphia when I was struggling my way through grad school there, loved every minute of it, and never looked back.

Partly for that reason, and partly because it's just so great, Daddy-Long-Legs is and will always be my ultimate comfort read. Alice Jane Chandler Webster went to Vassar in the late 90s and her experiences there, along with the social issues she became interested in through her involvement in the College Settlement House, inform Daddy (book and character), and give it, aside from the unlikely but charming romance angle, a real sense of place and a voice -- the plucky & determined Miss Jerusha Abbott's -- that rings true. She captures in such loving detail the texture of life at a girl's college at the time: the curriculum and athletics, the popular restaurants ("Broiled lobster (35 cents)"), fudge-making (155) and molasses candy pulls (55) in the dorms, exams ("now for the news -- courage, Judy!...I flunked mathematics and Latin prose." (62)) and field day parades -- "everybody dressed in white linen, the Seniors carrying blue and gold Japanese umbrellas, and the Juniors white and yellow banners." (148) -- and summer breaks and visits to and from the boys at Princeton (plus Julia Pendleton's Uncle Jervis). All these things feel historically particular, and, yet they're conveyed with what also feels timeless: Judy's spirit of exuberant, unquenchable, openhearted youth -- "to live in the now....to get the most that you can out of this very instant." (217)

Webster does an excellent job of conveying, in a way any first-gen college student will feel to her bones, the social discomfort and imposter syndrome Judy struggles with -- "I felt as though they saw right through my sham new clothes..." -- and her feeling that, out-of-step academically and culturally with her peers, she, at once, knows less and more about the world than any of them.

On those lines, I really appreciated that Webster didn't pull a "blood will tell" secret ancestry out of the hat for her main character like so many other authors before her had resorted to. "Think of Jerusha Abbott, late of the John Grier Home for Orphans, rooming with a Pendleton. This is a democractic country." (109) and, indeed, Judy remaining just...Judy, feels distinctly American, and 20th-century, and a real and welcome break from the more hidebound, classist themes/preoccupations of the Victorians.

Webster's also staunchly progressive and a feminist, and I love the way these commitments permeate the story. When Judy counters her benefactor's imperiousness with "I scorn to coax men for what I wish. Therefore, I must be disagreeable." you want to cheer. Her honesty and directness are still such a good model and watching her gain her footing and hone her talent over the course of a wonderful four-year college career is such an unadulterated pleasure. And one I return to often!

Flags: A few instance of outdated racial terminology.

Tags

1910-1919, American, Big Mis(understanding), United States, Northeast, age difference, beautiful/handsome, cheerful, clever, college/university, comfort-read, cozy, determined, epistolary, f/m, female, filmed, has been, first-person, fish out of water, generous, guardian, guardian/ward, humorous, idealistic, identity, concealed, illness acute , independent, intelligent, interclass, millionaire , orphaned, personal growth/becoming a better person, philanthropist, political philosophy, poor, practical, principled, progressive, recommended, rich, romance, short, single, student, talented, tall, thin, writer, young

Flags

insensitive or outdated language (race/ethnicity/disability/sexual orientation)