Annie Fellows Johnston

Background

Johnston was born on May 15, 1863, in Evansville, Indiana, of pioneer stock. One of the grandparents of her mother, Mary Erskine, was a Maryland colonist who freed his slaves for conscience' sake and moved westward into the Ohio wilderness; another 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 McCutchanville, 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.

Education

Johnston attended school in McCutchanville, Indiana. She studied at the University of Iowa, 1881-1882.

Career

When Johnston was seventeen she taught for one term in the district school which she had been attending. After graduating from the university, 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 in 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.

Johnston's 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, Kentucky, 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 1910, she made a temporary home 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: The Little Colonel in Arizona (1904), In the Desert of Waiting (1905), Mary Ware (1908), and Mary Ware in Texas (1910).

Johnston died on October 5, 1931, in Pewee Valley, Kentucky.

Achievements

• 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.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Complete Works of Annie Fellows Johnston (29 Complete Works of Annie Fellows Johnston Including Asa Holmes, Cicely and Other Stories, Georgina of The Rainbows, Big Brother, And More)

    (29 Complete Works of Annie Fellows Johnston Asa Holmes B...)

  • The Complete Little Colonel Series by Annie Fellows Johnston

    (Annie Fellows Johnston (1863 – 1931) was an American nove...)

  • Collected Works of Annie Fellows Johnston

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • The Three Weavers (Rare Collector's Series)

    (This is a special allegory for fathers to read to their d...)

  • The Little Colonel: Maid of Honor

    (Illustrated by Etheldred B. Barry)

  • The Rescue of the Princess Winsome A Fairy Play for Old and Young
  • In the Desert of Waiting

Connections

Johnston married a cousin, William L. Johnston, a widower with three young children in 1888. He died in 1892. Johnston's stepson died in 1910.

Father:

Albion Johnston

Mother:

Mary Erskine Fellows

Spouse:

William L. Johnston

Brother:

Erwin Johnston

Sister:

Lura Johnston

Sister:

Albion Johnston

References

• Beauty for Ashes, by Albion Fellows Bacon; with Numerous Illustrations
• The Land of the Little Colonel: Reminiscence and Autobiography