| Researcher | Author: Title | |
| My-Van Nguyen | Porter, Eleanor H.: Pollyanna Grows Up | |
| Assignment 1: Bibliographic Description | ||
| 1. First Edition Publication Information | The Page Company 53 Beacon Street Boston, Mass. March 1915 | |
| 2. First Edition in Cloth, Paper, or Both? | Cloth (brown) | |
| 3. Image of Cover Art | A1319980204164331.jpg | |
| 4. Pagination | vii. p. [1] 1, 308, 10 p. plates Every page is numbered on the upper outside corner, except chapter pages which are numbered in the center on the bottom. There are 7 illustrated pages printed on glossy paper inserted after the text was printed. | |
| 5. Edited and/or Introduced? | No | |
| 6. Illustrated? | H. Weston Taylor | |
| 7. Sample Illustration | A1719980204164331.jpg | |
| 8. General Appearance | The physical presentation is simple, yet attractive. The type is clear, easily read by children (the book's intended audience). | |
| 9. Image of Sample Chapter Page | A1919980204164331.jpg | |
| 10. Description of Paper | Paper is heavyweight and coarse. It is holding up well with aging, but is yellowed and occasionally stained. Illustrations are on glossy white paper which has retained its color but they are falling out of the book | |
| 11. Description of Binding | Binding is stitched. Brown ridged, shiny cloth. Cover has title and author embossed in gold. Spine has title, author's last name and publisher embossed in gold. Back cover has circular impression in bottom right corner reading " TRADE MARK THE GLAD BOOK REG. U.S. PAT. OFFICE" | |
| 12. Title Page Transcription | The Second Glad Book Trade---Mark POLLYANNA GROWS UP By ELEANOR H. PORTER Author of "Pollyanna: The Glad Book," "Miss Billy," "Miss Billy' Decision," "Miss Billy -- Married," "Cross Currents," "The Turn of the Tide," etc. Illustrated by H. WESTON TAYLOR BOSTON * THE PAGE COMPANY * PUBLISHERS | |
| 13. Image of Title Page | A11319980202120948.jpg | |
| 14. Manuscript Holdings | The location of this manuscript could not be found. | |
| 15. Other | First blank page (i) is hand inscribed in black ink: "For Little Lindsay, with Love from her cousins Mary & Lindsay Waters Dec. 23, 1923" | |
| Assignment 2: Publication History | ||
| 1. Other Editions: | The Page Company produced 2 editions: the original 1915 first edition and a 1921 unillustrated edition. There was also a British edition produc ed by the Pitman Company in 1915, the same year as Page's first edition. There are some discrepencies, but most sources agree that the Page Company produced the first edition. | |
| 4. First Edition printings or impressions? | at least 31 | |
| 5. Editions from other publishers? | Penguin Group 1984 Barbour and Company 1993 Transworld 1962 Angus and Robertson 1980 Dell 1990 Grosset & Dunlap 1942 White Lion Publishers 1976 Starfish Books 1975 Puffin 1984 Lightyear Press 1982 Harrap 1927 Viking Penguin 1996 Amereon Ltd. (date unknown -- recent, still in print) Buccaneer Press 1980 | |
| 6. Last date in print? | Page Company: 1930 Puffin (1984), Lightyear Press (1982), Viking Penguin (1996) and Amereon Limited (publishing date unknown) are still in print. | |
| 7. Total copies sold? | 1,000,000 (80 years of Bestsellers) | |
| 8. Sales by year? | Could not be obtained | |
| 9. Advertising copy: | in an ad for Pollyanna, the Glad Book Calender (Publishers' Weekly, Jan. 19, 1915): The new POLLYANNA, by Eleanor H. Porter will probably be published about April first The title is not definately selected as yet, but is likely to be eiter: POLLYANNA GROWS UP -- POLLYANNA RETURNS -- THE RETURN OF POLLYANNA -- POLLYANNA'S TEST -- THE TESTING OF POLLYANNA -- THE PROVING OF POLLYANNA We would welcome suggestions from you giving your preference for any of the above titles with you reasons for your selection. Also we would be _glad_ to have you submit any other titles which may occur to you as appropriate for the new _GLAD_ book. (ad in Publishers' Weekly, March 20, 1915): !March 27th! The _GLAD_ Day of the Year When Pollyanna is coming back in The Second Glad Book POLLYANNA GROWS UP A Sequel to "Pollyanna, The Glad Book" by Eleanor H. Porter FIRST TWO PRINTINGS, 100,000 COPIES 'Take away frowns! Draw up windox shades! Put down the worries! Stop fighting and disagreeing and grumbling! Cheer up everybody! POLLYANNA has come back!' - Christian Herald With eight illustrations, decorative jacket, net $1,25, Carriage paid $1.40 | |
| 11. Other promotion? | Other promotion for this novel could not be found. | |
| 12. Performances in other media? | Most other performances were based on _Pollyanna_, but included elements from _Pollyanna Grows Up_, such as her engagement to Jimmy Bean. Movies: 1920: Pollyanna -- produced by United Artists and the Mary Pickford Company (Pickford played Pollyanna in this film) 1960: Pollyanna -- Walt Disney Pictures Plays: 1920: Pollyanna -- written by Catherine Chisholm Cushing TV: 1982: The Adventures of Pollyanna -- Walt Disney Pictures 1989: Polly -- an African-American production 1990: Polly: Comin' Home -- sequel to Polly | |
| 13. Translations? | _Pareana no seishun_. Kadokawa Shoten (Tokyo, 1962) [Japanese] _Pao-lin-na ti tou k'ou nien hua_. Hsiao ch'ang shu fang (T'ai-pei shih, 1992) [Chinese] _Pollyanna cresce_. Editorial Publica (Lisboa, 1991) [Portuguese] _Pollyanna dorasta_. Nasza Ksiegarnia (Warszawa, 1974) [Polish] _Pollyanna crece_. Bruguera (Barcelona, 1969) [Spanish] _Pollyanna moca_. Companhia Editora Nacional (Sao Paulo, 1978) [Portuguese] | |
| 14. Serialization? | Porter did not serialize this novel. | |
| 15. Sequels or Prequels? | Is the sequel to _Pollyanna_ (1913) Porter did not write a sequel, however after her death a Pollyanna series was written by Harriet L. Smith and Elizabeth Borton. | |
| Assignment 3: Brief Biography | ||
| Eleanor Hodgeman Porter, an author most renowned for her best-selling novel "Pollyanna," was born December 19, 1862 in Littleton, New Hampshire. Her family had strong roots in New England; she was a direct descendent of Governor William Bradford, who came over on the Mayflower. She was educated in public schools during her childhood until illness caused her to turn to private tutors. She then attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. She made a successful career for herself singing in concerts and church choirs, which she continued after marrying businessman John Lyman Porter on May 3, 1892. The Porters lived in a wide variety of places during the next decade including Chattanooga, Tennessee, New York City, and Springfield, Vermont. By the time they had settled down in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in around 1901, Porter had turned from music to writing. She began by writing short stories which were printed in popular women’s magazines. In 1907, at the age of 45, Porter published her first novel, "Cross Currents." Then followed "The Turn of the Tide" (1908), "The Story of Marco" (1911), "Miss Billy" (1911), her first best-seller, and the sequel "Miss Billy’s Decision" (1912). Porter is best remembered for her best-seller, "Pollyanna," 1913) the story of a young girl whose "glad game" miraculously warms the cold-hearted and makes the world right again. "Pollyanna" was enormously popular, selling over a million copies, and is still in print today in countless reprinted editions. "Pollyanna"’s success was soon followed with the bestseller sequel, "Pollyanna Grows Up," (1915) where Pollyanna and the "glad game" move to Boston. Pollyanna had amazing popularity, leading to "glad" clubs around the nation, motion pictures, plays and even the acceptance to the word "pollyanna" into the English language. Porter’s other novels included "The Sunbridge Girls at Six-Star Ranch" (1913), "Miss Billy Married" (1914), "Just David" (a best-seller in 1916), "Six-Star Ranch" (1916), "The Road to Understanding" (a best-seller in1917), "Oh, Money! Money" (a best-seller in 1918), "Dawn" (a best-seller in 1919), "Mary-Marie" (a best-seller in 1920), and "Sister Sue" (1921). Many of Porter’s over 200 short stories were collected in "The Tie that Binds: Tales of Love and Marriage" (1919), "The Tangled Thread: Just Tales" (1919), and posthumously "Money, Love and Kate" (1923), "Across the Years: Tales of Age" (1924), "Hustler Joe and other stories" (1924), "Little Pardner and other stories" (1926), "Just Mother and other stories" (1927), and "The Fortunate Mary" (1928). After her death, a series of Pollyanna books was written by Harriet L. Smith and Elizabeth Borton. In 1946, Porter appeared as #14 on Publisher’s Weekly’s list of "The One Hundred Leading Authors of Bestsellers for the Period from 1895 to 1944 Inclusive." Rankings were determined by the number of books on the bestseller lists and the individual success of each book. Porter died in her Cambridge home on May 21, 1920 at the age of 57. | ||
| Assignment 4 | ||
| Contemporary Reception: | ||
| “Every now and then a large number of widely separated individuals will pick out some book to like, some simple little book that comes without much heralding, without the protection of a well-known author’s name. They take that simple little book to their hearts just because they like it, not because it happens to be the fashion to read it, or because one can be thought a “highbrow” by talking about it. This is what has happened to “Pollyanna,” by Eleanor H. Porter. And the great and genuine popularity of this more than simple little story has in advance secured the public favour for the sequel, “Pollyanna Grows Up,” just coming from the press. . . But [the reader] will not read either of the “Pollyanna” books for the plot. He will read them for the little heroine herself, and he will be better off than some of those other characters in the book who had to live with Pollyanna. He can shut her up and lay her away on the shelf when her strenuous “gladness” becomes too annoying. But he or she -- for many women will like these books -- will soon reach up to the shelf and take the little maid back again for an hour’s companionship. . . There is little artistry in the “Pollyanna” books, but great sincerity. Many of the characters are merely foils to Pollyanna, and are not true in themselves, but this is a fault of workmanship, not of conviction. . . The popularity of [the “Pollyanna” books] need not disturb the critic of American literary likings. It is an indication of the fact that readers are willing to take a lesson for life out of their books. And tat, after all, is one of the great aims of art.”- Grace Isabel Colbron, “The Popularity of Pollyanna,” Bookman, May 1915“You’ll find yourself proceeding with blessings upon Pollyanna’s bright and freckled little face. For she is the storm-center of an engaging narrative, and, after all she has the right idea.”- Joseph Mosher, Publishers’ Weekly, March 20, 1915“The second glad book has the entertaining style and cheerful company of the earlier work which introduced Pollyanna and in addition covers a much wider range.”- The Boston Transcript, March 20, 1915“These stories cannot lay claim to any literary distinction, but, in basing their appeal on an effervescent optimism and a pretty sentimentality, Mrs. Porter sets throbbing an emotional chord not confined to the bosoms of any single class of readers.”- Springfield Republican, December 9, 1915Reaction to Eleanor Porter’s sequel to her best-seller “Pollyanna” was primarily positive. Most critics seemed to agree that there was little literary merit in “Pollyanna Grows Up,” but that its strength lie in its sincerity and its power to emotionally move people. This book was a best-seller, not because of Porter’s writing skills, but because of the irresistable draw of her title character, Pollyanna. After its initial publication, there seems to be no mention of this book in the media, except as a brief sidenote to articles on “Pollyanna.” | ||
| Subsequent Reception: | ||
| No critical mention of this book could be found in the media after 5 years from its publication. | ||
| Assignment 5 | ||
| Electronic Edition: | Table of Contents | |
Bestsellers
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