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Eighty-seven years old, a pain-wracked invalid—yet the author of "Ester Reid," "Four Girls At Chautauqua," "Mrs. Solomon Smith," has lost none of her earlier power and spontaneity. The problems of yesterday are the problems of to-day, though they may be furnished with electric lights, airplanes and automobiles to make them up-to-date. And Pansy knows life—her stories are real—they strike to the very heart of the girl and boy, the man and woman—they show us ourselves as God sees us—the real person beneath the sham and mockery of society. She weaves her stories around the common everyday lives of the people she knows—till her characters become alive and real to those who read.
A marvelous housekeeper; an ideal pastor's wife who took the whole parish into her life, who knew them and loved them, who cared for the sick and gathered the young people around her for a good time; a woman much in demand in public life as director of religious conferences and as a lecturer and, above all, an author beloved by thousands.
Many years ago she edited a small paper, "The Pansy," a Herculean task, for it brought her thousands of letters from the children who had joined the Pansy Society and wrote her about their faults and how to correct them. And other letters poured in, too, from all over the globe, asking for her autograph and photograph, for advice on how to become a great author, on how to get the right kind of a husband, and on every other question under the sun. And Pansy answered every letter, usually by her own hand.
Hers has been a busy life and a happy one—and an inspiration to thousands who have known her or her books. And to-day, bereft of husband and children, a cripple, she fights bravely on, writing the story of her life: "Yesterdays"—the beautiful record of a happy and consecrated life.
———————————————————————————J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY