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Susan Coolidge, What Katy Did, 1872, sequels 1873, 1886, 1888, 1890
*What Katy Did* was published shortly after the runaway success of *Little Women*, capitalising on the new market for domestic fiction for girls. The focus is on the family, in this case there are six siblings but the brothers are barely sketched and the girls are the main focus.
That reminds me that one of the things I find interesting about the first book in the series is that gender is a bit mixed up. Their father encourages all the children, including the girls to be active and daring. And two of the children are described in gender-changed ways.
'Dorry and Joanna sat on the two ends of the ridge pole. Dorry was six years old; a pale, pudgy boy, with rather a solemn face, and smears of molasses on the sleeve of his jacket. Joanna, whom the children called "John," and "Johnnie," was a square, splendid child, a year younger than Dorry; she had big brave eyes, and a wide rosy mouth, which always looked ready to laugh. These two were great friends, though Dorry seemed like a girl who had got into boy's clothes by mistake, and Johnnie like a boy who, in a fit of fun, had borrowed his sister's frock.'
But this interesting beginning is not followed up on – as soon as Katy begins to grow up everything becomes rigidly set.
Katy, the oldest child, is wild, harum scarum, full of good intentions but never achieving them. Until, of course, she is entirely physically arrested as she enters puberty. She damages her back in a fall and then spends three years lying in her bed, becoming the little mother of the house, taking care of the younger children and holding the reins of the household in her small hands. At the end, her transformation into a totally restrained and well behaved young lady is complete. She learns to walk again and comes downstairs on her mother’s birthday, grave, sensible and ladylike.
She is aided in this by Aunt Helen, who, coincidentally, also has a spinal injury.
What Katy Did At School – And in the sequels she continues to be irreproachably sensible, calm, loving, and passive. She goes to school. This volume includes some excellent descriptions of the boxes and gifts from home and also a description of how to play the poetry game which I have played myself.
The problem Coolidge faces in this book is that it is hard to have conflict when the main characters literally never do anything wrong and instead form a Society for the Suppression of Unladylike Conduct. (This acronym reminds me of Hermione Granger’s SPEW.) She manages to inject some mischief in the form of Rose Red, their loveable but mildly naughty companion and Lily, their greedy, flirty cousin. Clover also meets Lily’s brother, the brash, clumsy Clarence.
NB: As a side note, they meet yet a third victim of the ‘female spinal problem’ epidemic which apparently was so rampant at this time. Yet another lady who cannot walk but cheers the household from her couch.
What Katy Did Next – Katy goes travelling in *What Katy Did Next*. It’s a thinly disguised description of the author’s own travels.
The most interesting thing that happens is that the daughter of the lady Katy is travelling with gets Roman fever. Her companion falls apart and Katy does most of the nursing, including shouting at her rude Italian landlady. Which is apparently what makes the love interest fall for her. They agree to get married, although he is a great nonentity, distinguished only by the fact that cousin Lily fancies him.
Note that Roman fever is treated by shaving the victim’s head and then the hair grows back in delightful curls.
Clover and In the High Country – These two little known sequels to the series wrap everything up by marrying virtually every character off. Clover does not marry cousin Clarence, but his best friend. Elsie marries cousin Clarence. (They all live together). A brother and sister are imported from England so Dorrie can marry one and Johnie the other. Phil is only twenty one and too young to marry yet but has his eye on little Amy the Roman fever victim.
I read a review which speculates that this is some kind of early fanfiction, as the tone is so different to the earlier books.* Plus there are continuity problems and Katy, the major character, is shuffled off screen for most of the books. In fact, they all wind up living together in Colorado, including their father, except for Katy.
I think it is equally likely that Coolidge needed some quick cash and decided to revisit her most successful work. Early in her career she chose a pen-name for her children’s literature and used her own name for her more serious writing. She came from a scholarly background – she was related to a Governor and three heads of Yale – and she may have wanted to preserve her dignity. By the 1880s perhaps she had lost the hope of a great literary career and was willing to write these frankly trashy last two novels.
The first book is definitely the best, and includes the odd scenes with Cousin Helen (who is also invalided). Cousin Helen is a passive-aggressively saintly young woman who talks about the lessons learned in the School of Pain and who spends her days lying on a couch looking at the family next door which consists of her ex-fiance, his wife and their child Helen. Creepy much? Here is a poem she sends Katy about the need to submit to the School of Pain and the virtues of patient submission.
I used to go to a bright school
Where Youth and Frolic taught in turn;
But idle scholar that I was,
I liked to play, I would not learn;
So the Great Teacher did ordain
That I should try the School of Pain.
"One of the infant class I am
With little, easy lessons, set
In a great book; the higher class
Have harder ones than I, and yet
I find mine hard, and can't restrain
My tears while studying thus with Pain.
"There are two teachers in the school,
One has a gentle voice and low,
And smiles upon her scholars, as
She softly passes to and fro.
Her name is Love; 'tis very plain
She shuns the sharper teacher, Pain.
"Or so I sometimes think; and then,
At other times, they meet and kiss,
And look so strangely like, that I
Am puzzled to tell how it is,
Or whence the change which makes it vain
To guess if it be – Love or Pain.
"They tell me if I study well,
And learn my lessons, I shall be
Moved upward to that higher class
Where dear Love teaches constantly;
And I work hard, in hopes to gain
Reward, and get away from Pain.
"Yet Pain is sometimes kind, and helps
Me on when I am very dull;
I thank him often in my heart;
But Love is far more beautiful;
Under her tender, gentle reign
I must learn faster than of Pain.
"So I will do my very best,
Nor chide the clock, nor call it slow;
That when the Teacher calls me up
To see if I am fit to go,
I may to Love's high class attain,
And bid a sweet good-by to Pain."
https://cassandraparkin.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/adventures-in-trash-clover-and-in-the-high-valley-by-susan-coolidge-possibly/
*What Katy Did* was published shortly after the runaway success of *Little Women*, capitalising on the new market for domestic fiction for girls. The focus is on the family, in this case there are six siblings but the brothers are barely sketched and the girls are the main focus.
That reminds me that one of the things I find interesting about the first book in the series is that gender is a bit mixed up. Their father encourages all the children, including the girls to be active and daring. And two of the children are described in gender-changed ways.
'Dorry and Joanna sat on the two ends of the ridge pole. Dorry was six years old; a pale, pudgy boy, with rather a solemn face, and smears of molasses on the sleeve of his jacket. Joanna, whom the children called "John," and "Johnnie," was a square, splendid child, a year younger than Dorry; she had big brave eyes, and a wide rosy mouth, which always looked ready to laugh. These two were great friends, though Dorry seemed like a girl who had got into boy's clothes by mistake, and Johnnie like a boy who, in a fit of fun, had borrowed his sister's frock.'
But this interesting beginning is not followed up on – as soon as Katy begins to grow up everything becomes rigidly set.
Katy, the oldest child, is wild, harum scarum, full of good intentions but never achieving them. Until, of course, she is entirely physically arrested as she enters puberty. She damages her back in a fall and then spends three years lying in her bed, becoming the little mother of the house, taking care of the younger children and holding the reins of the household in her small hands. At the end, her transformation into a totally restrained and well behaved young lady is complete. She learns to walk again and comes downstairs on her mother’s birthday, grave, sensible and ladylike.
She is aided in this by Aunt Helen, who, coincidentally, also has a spinal injury.
What Katy Did At School – And in the sequels she continues to be irreproachably sensible, calm, loving, and passive. She goes to school. This volume includes some excellent descriptions of the boxes and gifts from home and also a description of how to play the poetry game which I have played myself.
The problem Coolidge faces in this book is that it is hard to have conflict when the main characters literally never do anything wrong and instead form a Society for the Suppression of Unladylike Conduct. (This acronym reminds me of Hermione Granger’s SPEW.) She manages to inject some mischief in the form of Rose Red, their loveable but mildly naughty companion and Lily, their greedy, flirty cousin. Clover also meets Lily’s brother, the brash, clumsy Clarence.
NB: As a side note, they meet yet a third victim of the ‘female spinal problem’ epidemic which apparently was so rampant at this time. Yet another lady who cannot walk but cheers the household from her couch.
What Katy Did Next – Katy goes travelling in *What Katy Did Next*. It’s a thinly disguised description of the author’s own travels.
The most interesting thing that happens is that the daughter of the lady Katy is travelling with gets Roman fever. Her companion falls apart and Katy does most of the nursing, including shouting at her rude Italian landlady. Which is apparently what makes the love interest fall for her. They agree to get married, although he is a great nonentity, distinguished only by the fact that cousin Lily fancies him.
Note that Roman fever is treated by shaving the victim’s head and then the hair grows back in delightful curls.
Clover and In the High Country – These two little known sequels to the series wrap everything up by marrying virtually every character off. Clover does not marry cousin Clarence, but his best friend. Elsie marries cousin Clarence. (They all live together). A brother and sister are imported from England so Dorrie can marry one and Johnie the other. Phil is only twenty one and too young to marry yet but has his eye on little Amy the Roman fever victim.
I read a review which speculates that this is some kind of early fanfiction, as the tone is so different to the earlier books.* Plus there are continuity problems and Katy, the major character, is shuffled off screen for most of the books. In fact, they all wind up living together in Colorado, including their father, except for Katy.
I think it is equally likely that Coolidge needed some quick cash and decided to revisit her most successful work. Early in her career she chose a pen-name for her children’s literature and used her own name for her more serious writing. She came from a scholarly background – she was related to a Governor and three heads of Yale – and she may have wanted to preserve her dignity. By the 1880s perhaps she had lost the hope of a great literary career and was willing to write these frankly trashy last two novels.
The first book is definitely the best, and includes the odd scenes with Cousin Helen (who is also invalided). Cousin Helen is a passive-aggressively saintly young woman who talks about the lessons learned in the School of Pain and who spends her days lying on a couch looking at the family next door which consists of her ex-fiance, his wife and their child Helen. Creepy much? Here is a poem she sends Katy about the need to submit to the School of Pain and the virtues of patient submission.
I used to go to a bright school
Where Youth and Frolic taught in turn;
But idle scholar that I was,
I liked to play, I would not learn;
So the Great Teacher did ordain
That I should try the School of Pain.
"One of the infant class I am
With little, easy lessons, set
In a great book; the higher class
Have harder ones than I, and yet
I find mine hard, and can't restrain
My tears while studying thus with Pain.
"There are two teachers in the school,
One has a gentle voice and low,
And smiles upon her scholars, as
She softly passes to and fro.
Her name is Love; 'tis very plain
She shuns the sharper teacher, Pain.
"Or so I sometimes think; and then,
At other times, they meet and kiss,
And look so strangely like, that I
Am puzzled to tell how it is,
Or whence the change which makes it vain
To guess if it be – Love or Pain.
"They tell me if I study well,
And learn my lessons, I shall be
Moved upward to that higher class
Where dear Love teaches constantly;
And I work hard, in hopes to gain
Reward, and get away from Pain.
"Yet Pain is sometimes kind, and helps
Me on when I am very dull;
I thank him often in my heart;
But Love is far more beautiful;
Under her tender, gentle reign
I must learn faster than of Pain.
"So I will do my very best,
Nor chide the clock, nor call it slow;
That when the Teacher calls me up
To see if I am fit to go,
I may to Love's high class attain,
And bid a sweet good-by to Pain."
https://cassandraparkin.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/adventures-in-trash-clover-and-in-the-high-valley-by-susan-coolidge-possibly/
