Hans Brinker

- By Mary Mapes Dodge
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American children's author and editor (1831–1905) Mary Mapes Dodge"A Woman of the Century"BornMary Elizabeth Mapes(1831-01-26)January 26, 1831New York City, USDiedAugust 21, 1905(1905-08-21) (aged 74)Tannersville, New York, USOccupationChildren's writer, editorNotable worksHans Brinker, or The Silver SkatesSpouse William Dodge ​ ​(m. 1851; died 1858)​ChildrenJames Mapes Dodge, Harrington M. DodgeParentJames Jay MapesSignature Mary Elizabeth Mapes Dodge (January 26, 1831 – August 21, 1905) was an American children's author and editor, best known for her novel Hans Brinker. She was the recognized leader in juvenile literature for almost a third of the nineteenth century.[1] Dodge conducted St. Nicholas Magazine for more than 30 years, and it became one of the most successful magazines for children. She was able to persuade many of the great writers of the world to contribute to her children's magazine – Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Bret Harte, John Hay, Charles Dudley Warner, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, and scores of others. One day, Rudyard Kipling told her a story of the Indian jungle; Dodge asked him to write it down for St. Nicholas. He never had written for children, but he would try. The result was The Jungle Book.[2] After the death of her husband, Dodge turned to literature as a means to earn the money to educate her sons. She began to write short sketches for children, and soon brought out a volume of them, entitled Irvington Stories, (New York, 1864), which was very successful. She next published Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates (New York, 1865); translated into Dutch, French, German, Russian and Italian, and was awarded a prize of 1,500 francs by the French Academy. With Donald Grant Mitchell and Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dodge was one of the earliest editors of Hearth and Home, and for several years, she conducted the household and children's department of that journal. In 1873, when St. Nicholas Magazine was started, she became its editor. Her other published volumes were A Few Friends, and How They Amused Themselves (Philadelphia, 1860), Rhymes and Jingles (New York, 1874), Theophilus and Others (New York, 1876) Along the Way, poems (New York, 1879), and Donald and Dorothy (New York, 1883). She was the author of "Miss Maloney on the Chinese Question," published in Scribner's Monthly in 1870. Dodge contributed to Harper's Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, the Centur, and other periodicals.[3] History[edit] The Sisters, engraved by Timothy Cole, from the portrait-painting by William Page. Mapes, age four, is holding a doll. Mary Elizabeth Mapes was born January 26, 1831, in New York City. Her parents were Prof. James Jay Mapes, the distinguished promoter of scientific farming in the United States; and Sophia Furman (or Ferrman). Her siblings included Charles V. Mapes, Sophia Mapes (Tolles, the artist), and Catherine T. (Bonnell).[4] The daughters of Professor Mapes never went to school. They gained their education at home under the care of tutors and governesses, being carefully trained, not only in the usual English branches, but in French, drawing, music, and Latin.[4] She early showed talents for drawing, modeling and musical and literary composition.[3] In 1851, she married William Dodge, a lawyer from New York City. Within the next four years she gave birth to two sons, James and Harrington. In 1857, William faced serious financial difficulties and left his family in 1858. A month after his disappearance, his body was found after he died from an apparent drowning. With her two children, she returned to the family homestead, a large country house near Newark, New Jersey. Here, her life was mainly devoted to her children. As time went on, she found herself obliged to provide the money for their education and it was for this purpose that she turned to writing. A small cottage or farm-house which adjoined the orchard on her father's estate was taken for use as a study, and Dodge and her boys soon transformed it into a cozy "den". In this simply furnished abode, far enough away from the great house to insure quiet, she set to work in earnest.[4] But, one afternoon of every week belonged exclusively to the boys.[5] Editor[edit] In 1859, she began working with her father to publish two magazines, the Working Farmer and the United States Journal. In 1869, after bringing out a book of home pastimes entitled A Few Friends, she accepted the position of associate editor of Hearth and Home in 1870. The publication was a weekly family paper, of which the editors were Harriet Beecher Stowe and Donald Grant Mitchell.[6] For this journal, she took charge of the household and juvenile departments, and before long, Dodge's reputation as editor equaled that which she had already attained as author. The circulation of the periodical was greatly increased, and the department itself rapidly grew into a very prominent feature of the weekly issues. It was her work in this field which first attracted the attention of Dr. J. G. Holland and Roswell Smith when, early in the 1870s, as directors of the company which published The Century Magazine, they began to consider the publication of a new juvenile monthly. Their decision really hinged upon hers, for they were heartily ready to undertake the project provided they could obtain her consent to assume its management and become its editor.[1] Smith asked Dodge to edit the new magazine for children. Meanwhile, wishing to give her undivided time to writing, she had refused a very handsome offer to become the editor of Hearth and Home. Her two sons were then at college, and it was eventually the younger son that turned the scale in favor of the Scribner proposition. He had studied till he had no strength, and his mother felt that he needed an extended vacation and change of scene. She herself had long wished to go abroad, and so, when she was offered a salary to begin upon the day of the preliminary offer—this was in April or May—with the understanding that the initial number of the magazine was not to appear until January, and freedom to spend the intervening time where and as she chose, she accepted the offer. From the first everything was left entirely in her hands, including the name, for which she chose St. Nicholas. The house decided to bring out the first number in November, and Dodge returned from Europe, having found nothing in the publications there to modify her original plan. At the end of the year, the new magazine had outstripped all competitors. Indeed, within a few months after the issue of the first number, Messrs. Osgood & Co. acknowledged that they could not stand against their rival, and made a proposition which resulted in the merging of Our Young Folks into St. Nicholas.[7] Early writings[edit] Dodge's desk Dodge's first published article, "Shoddy Aristocracy in America", and the manner of its publication, were as much the outcome of her susceptibility to the human, as well as the literary, appeal of life as to her sense of humor and instinct for artistic expression. Because it was based upon personal observation the article was sent to The Cornhill Magazine, of London, as a publication safely removed from the comedy and the actors it presented. By return post, she received payment of £50 and a request from The Cornhill for a series of papers. To Dodge's amazement, the article was reprinted in whole or in part by many of the leading newspapers in the United States.[7] Her first short story, "My Mysterious Enemy", was promptly accepted by Harper's Magazine, and "The Insanity of Cain", a brilliant piece of special pleading, and one of her most characteristic essays in the humorous or satirical vein, attained instant popularity at the time of its publication in Scribner's Monthly. This article grew out of a remark to Roswell Smith when Dodge and he were discussing the recent acquittal of a criminal on the plea of emotional insanity. [7] After the publication in leading magazines of several essays and stories for grown-up readers, Dodge brought out, in 1864, her first book – made up of short tales for children – under the title of The Irvington Stories (1864). It was a modest muslin-covered duodecimo, with three or four illustrations by F. O. C. Darley.[5] So great was its popularity that the publisher asked for a second series or a sequel.[7] But Dodge, meantime, had begun work upon a longer narrative. Like the rest of the reading world, she had been thrilled and fascinated by the lately-published histories of John Lothrop Motley, the Rise of the Dutch Republic, and the History of the United Netherlands. She resolved to make the Netherlands the scene of a juvenile tale, and give the youngsters so much of the history of that country as should tell itself, naturally, through the evolution of the story.[5] She was really improvising it as a "good-night story" for her boys – making it up as she went along. In the heat of kindled imagination, she began to tell her children a story of life in the Netherlands, weaving into it much interesting material from the history of that country, which at that time she had never seen. The subject grew more and more absorbing to her. She worked upon the manuscript from morning till night, and sought every source of information which could make her pages more true to life or more entertaining to her readers. She ransacked libraries for books upon the Netherlands; made every traveler whom she knew tell her his tale of that country; and submitted every chapter to the test of the criticism of two accomplished Dutchmen living near her.[1] Upon receiving the manuscript, the publisher, disappointed at not receiving a second collection of short stories, was tempted to reject it. But the author had nothing else ready, he could not afford to forego the prestige of her former success, and so, reluctantly and doubtfully, he issued the most successful juvenile tale of that time, Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates (1865).[5] It became an instant bestseller and was translated into French, German, Dutch, Russian, and Italian. The French Academy awarded it one of the Montyon Prizes of fifteen hundred francs.[7] Midcareer volumes[edit] In the year 1874, Dodge published Rhymes and Jingles.[7] From the first issue, its success was almost as great as that of Hans Brinker.[1] Three years later, in 1877, she published a book of essays and short stories entitled Theophilus and Others.[7] Theophilus and Others was a book of stories and sketches for grown people. Among its contents were a clever satire, "The Insanity of Cain", which at once attracted wide notice, and the mirth-provoking comicality in Irish dialect, "Miss Maloney on the Chinese Question". This skit – which was compared in rank to Bret Harte's "Heathen Chinee" – had an enormous popularity in its day, and was later included in many collections of humorous masterpieces. It was written in a single evening, to fill a blank space in a magazine. Charlotte Cushman immediately gave it a place of honor in her public readings as one of her favorite selections, and sending for its author, asked her to write a companion-piece. A long and warm friendship between the two distinguished women dated from this interview.[1] In 1879, a collection of poems and verses for grown-up readers, entitled Along the Way, was published.[7] With her usual modesty, Dodge would not dignify her volume of verse by the name of "poems", preferring the simple title of " Along the Way". But, as one critic said of it at the time, "It is a happy thing for those of us who do not walk such ways to have her show us what may there be seen." In 1883, Dodge was persuaded to issue a new edition of this work, under the title Poems and Verses. Throughout, it shows sincerity of poetic feeling; a rich imagination; a genuine love of nature; and a happy serenity of heart. "Enfoldings", the sonnet on "The Stars", "Inverted", and "The Two Mysteries" were particularly praised. Her works found their way into various anthologies whose editors – some of them distinguished critics – were quite willing to call them poems, even if their author was not.[1] In 1894, she brought out two other books: The Land of Pluck, a collection of sketches and stories which takes its name from the opening article about Holland, and When Life is Young, which opens with her well-known poem "The Minuet", and contains many other favorite pieces. Both books won praise from critics, and a very large audience among young readers. During her career as an editor, Dodge published seven books for adults as well as two books for small children, Baby Days and Bay World.[1] "The Two Mysteries", "Enfoldings", and "The Compact " demonstrated her depth and tenderness of feeling, intellectual poise, spiritual insight, and simplicity of expression.[7] Personal life[edit] "Yarrow" cottage Dodge lived in a large apartment-building overlooking Central Park in New York City.[1] In 1888, she purchased a cottage, which she named "Yarrow", in the summer colony at Onteora Park, Onteora Park, Tannersville, New York,[7] upon the slope of Onteora Mountain, in the Catskill Mountains. In the beginning, it was a simple little square frame-house, and Dodge took great delight in adding, year by year, a room or a veranda, a bay-window or an extension, until she created, at last, a many-gabled home, to which she returned each season.[1] One of her sons died in 1881, and the other, James Mapes Dodge, was a successful inventor and manufacturer, residing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[3] Her daughter-in-law, Mrs. James Mapes Dodge (Josephine Kern), was the sculptor of The Good Fairy Statue in 1916.[8] Dodge had been suffering from a severe illness for several months, and it was hoped that the usual sojourn in her summer cottage at Onteora might restore her to health, but she steadily grew weaker until her death on August 21, 1905.[9][1] Style and themes[edit] Dodge's writing interpreted childhood. "The child's world is a different world, a preparatory world, a world that is coming on. You must build yourself around the humanity of childhood." And again, "The natural thing is the thing that grasps a child in literature as well as in life."[7] Underlying a style of spontaneous charm, and coupled with humor whose thrusts leave no sting, are intellectual integrity, delight in discovering and acknowledging in others gifts of mind or spirit, responsiveness, a quickness to feel and believe as buoyant as if her energies had not been claimed by an absorbing profession, and an outlook undimmed by ambitions and activities.[10] Selected works[edit] Prose The Irvington Stories (1864) Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates (1865) A Few Friends and How They Amused Themselves (1869) Baby Days (1876) Theophilus and Others (1876) Donald and Dorothy (1883) Baby World (1884) The Land of Pluck (1894) Verse Rhymes and Jingles (1874) Along the Way (1879) When Life Is Young (1894) References[edit] ^ a b c d e f g h i j Dodge 1905, p. 1059. ^ Ellsworth 1919, p. 89-. ^ a b c Willard & Livermore 1893, p. 248. ^ a b c Weygant 1897, p. 35. ^ a b c d Phelps, Stowe & Cooke 1884, pp. 276–94. ^ Okker 2008, p. 10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Halsey 1903, pp. 259–68. ^ Cavert, Mary Beth (2009). "The Good Fairy Statue." ^ "Mary Mapes Dodge Dead. The Poet, Author, and Editor of St. Nicholas Magazine" (PDF). The New York Times. August 22, 1905. Retrieved June 2, 2010. ^ Halsey 1903, p. 259-. Attribution[edit] This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Dodge, Mary Mapes (1905). "In Memory of Mary Mapes Dodge. Died August 21, 1905. By William Fayal Clark". St. Nicholas. Vol. 32, Part 2 (Public domain ed.). Scribner & Company. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Ellsworth, William Webster (1919). A Golden Age of Authors: A Publisher's Recollection (Public domain ed.). Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 9780598630773. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Halsey, Francis Whiting (1903). Women authors of our day in their homes: personal descriptions & interviews (Public domain ed.). J. Pott & Company. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart; Stowe, Harriet Beecher; Cooke, Rose Terry (1884). "Mary Mapes Dodge, by Lucia Gilbert Runkle". Our Famous Women: An Authorized Record of the Lives and Deeds of Distinguished American Women of Our Times ... (Public domain ed.). A. D. Worthington & Company. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Weygant, C. H. (1897). The Family Record: Devoted for 1897 to the Sackett, the Weygant and the Mapes Families, and to Ancestors of Their Intersecting Lines (Public domain ed.). C. H. Weygant. p. 35. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Public domain ed.). Moulton. p. 248. Howard Brown, John, (1904). "Dodge, Mary Mapes." In The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Vol. III, The Biographical Society, p. 274. Bibliography[edit] Jasspon Kunitz, Stanley; Howard Haycraft (1938). "Dodge, Mary Elizabeth (Mapes)" American Authors 1600–1900, The H. W. Wilson Company, New York, p. 220. Okker, Patricia (2008). Our Sister Editors: Sarah J. Hale and the Tradition of Nineteenth-century American Women Editors. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-3249-9. Further reading[edit] Gannon, Susan R.; Ruth Anne Thompson (1992). Mary Mapes Dodge, Twayne. Gannon, Susan R.; Ruth Anne Thompson (1992). "Mr. Scudder and Mrs. Dodge: An Editorial Correspondence and What it Tells Us," American Periodicals, Vol. 2. Gannon, Susan R.; Ruth Anne Thompson and Suzanne Rahn (2004). St. Nicholas and Mary Mapes Dodge, MacFarland & Co., Inc. Howard, Alice Barrett (1943). Mary Mapes Dodge of St. Nicholas, Julian Messner. McEnery, S. S. (1905). "Mary Mapes Dodge: Intimate Tribute", The Critic, Vol. XLVII. Mason, Miriam Evangeline (1962). Mary Mapes Dodge: Jolly Girl, Bobbs-Merrill. Satterie, Mattie Griffith (1912). "Personal Recollections of a Teacher III: Ms. Mary Mapes Dodge", Educational Foundations, Vol. XXIII, pp. 171–172. Sorby, Angela (1998). "A Visit from St. Nicholas: The Poetics of Peer Culture, 1872–1900", American Studies, Vol. 39, No. 1. Wright, Catharine Morris (1979). Lady of the Silver Skates: the Life and Correspondence of Mary Mapes Dodge, 1830–1905, Clingstone Press. External links[edit] Wikiquote has quotations related to Mary Mapes Dodge. Children's literature portal Works related to Woman of the Century/Mary Mapes Dodge at Wikisource Works by Mary Mapes Dodge at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Mary Mapes Dodge at Internet Archive Works by Mary Mapes Dodge at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Works at Open Library Works by Mary Mapes Dodge, at Hathi Trust "Mary Mapes Dodge". Kids LibraryPoint. Retrieved May 15, 2012. Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates readable free online from the University of Florida Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature Other works by Mary Mapes Dodge readable free online from the University of Florida Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature A Guide to the Papers of Mary Mapes Dodge at the University of Virginia Library Authority control databases International FAST ISNI VIAF National Norway Spain France BnF data Germany Italy Israel Finland United States Sweden Latvia Japan Czech Republic Greece Korea Netherlands Vatican Academics CiNii People Deutsche Biographie Other SNAC IdRef

1 On a bright December morning long ago, two thinly clad children were kneeling upon the bank of a frozen canal in Holland.
 
2 The sun had not yet appeared, but the gray sky was parted near the horizon, and its edges shone crimson with the coming day. Most of the good Hollanders were enjoying a placid morning nap.
 
3 Meanwhile, with many a vigorous puff and pull, the brother and sister, for such they were, seemed to be fastening something to their feet—not skates, certainly, but clumsy pieces of wood narrowed and smoothed at their lower edge, and pierced with holes, through which were threaded strings of rawhide.
 
4 These queer-looking affairs had been made by the boy Hans. His mother was a poor peasant woman, too poor even to think of such a thing as buying skates for her little ones. Rough as these were, they had afforded the children many a happy hour upon the ice.
 
5 In a moment, the boy arose and, with a pompous swing of the arms and a careless “Come on, Gretel,” glided easily across the canal.
 
6 “Ah, Hans,” called his sister plaintively, “this foot is not well yet. The strings hurt me on last market day, and now I cannot bear them tied in the same place.”
 
7 “Tie them higher up, then,” answered Hans, as without looking at her he performed a wonderful cat’s cradle step on the ice.
 
8 “How can I? The string is too short.”
 
9 Giving vent to a good-natured Dutch whistle, the English translation of which was that girls were troublesome creatures, he steered toward her.
 
10 “You are foolish to wear such shoes, Gretel, when you have a stout leather pair. Your wooden shoes would be better than these.”
 
11 “Why, Hans! Do you forget? The father threw my beautiful new shoes in the fire. Before I knew what he had done, they were all curled up in the midst o the burning peat. I can skate with these, but not with my wooden ones. Be careful now—”
 
12 Hans had taken a string from his pocket. Humming a tune as he knelt beside her, he proceeded to fasten Gretel’s skate with all the force of his strong young arm.
 
13 “Oh! Oh!” she cried in real pain.
 
14 With an impatient jerk, Hans unwound the string. He would have cast it on the ground, in true big-brother style, had he not just then spied a tear trickling down his sister’s cheek.
 
15 “I’ll fix it—never fear,” he said with sudden tenderness, “but we must be quick. The mother will need us soon.”
 
16 His eye suddenly brightened as, with the air of a fellow who knew what he was about, he took off his cap and, removing the tattered lining, adjusted it in a smooth pad over the top of Gretel’s worn-out shoe.
 
17 “Now,” he cried triumphantly, at the same time arranging the strings as briskly as his benumbed fingers would allow, “can you bear some pulling?”
 
18 Gretel drew up her lips as if to say, “Hurt away,” but made no further response.
 
19 In another moment, they were all laughing together, as hand in hand, they flew along the canal, never thinking whether the ice would bear them or not, for, in Holland, ice is generally an all winter affair. It settles itself upon the water in a determined kind of way, and so far from growing thin and uncertain every time the sun is a little severe upon it, it gathers its forces day by day and flashes defiance to every beam.
 
20 Presently, squeak! squeak! sounded something beneath Hans’ feet. Next, his strokes grew shorter, ending of times with a jerk, and finally, he lay sprawling upon the ice, kicking against the air with many a fantastic flourish.
 
21 “Ha! ha!” laughed Gretel. “That was a fine tumble!” But a tender heart was beating under her coarse blue jacket, and even as she laughed, she came, with a graceful sweep, close to her prostrate brother.
 
22 “Are you hurt, Hans? Oh, you are laughing! Catch me now!” And she darted away, shivering no longer, but with cheeks, all aglow and eyes sparkling with fun.
 
23 Hans sprang to his feet and started in brisk pursuit, but it was no easy thing to catch Gretel. Before she had traveled very far, her skates, too, began to squeak.
 
24 Believing that discretion was the better part of valor, she turned suddenly and skated into her pursuer’s arms.
 
25 “Ha! Ha! I’ve caught you!” cried Hans.
 
26 “Ha! Ha! I caught YOU,” she retorted, struggling to free herself.
 
27 Just then, a clear, quick voice was heard calling, “Hans! Gretel!”
 
28 “It’s the mother,” said Hans, looking solemn in an instant.

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GRADE:5

Word Lists:

Plaintively :

Tattered : old and torn; in poor condition

Sprawling : spreading out over a large area in an untidy or irregular way

Canal : an artificial waterway constructed to allow the passage of boats or ships inland or to convey water for irrigation.

Pompous : affectedly and irritatingly grand, solemn, or self-important

Brisk : active, fast, and energetic

Valor : great courage in the face of danger, especially in battle

Troublesome : causing difficulty or annoyance

Placid : (of a person or animal) not easily upset or excited

Clumsy : awkward in movement or in handling things

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Additional Information:

Rating: A Words in the Passage: 856 Unique Words: 396 Sentences: 87
Noun: 283 Conjunction: 48 Adverb: 49 Interjection: 9
Adjective: 75 Pronoun: 82 Verb: 156 Preposition: 85
Letter Count: 3,675 Sentiment: Positive Tone: Neutral Difficult Words: 182
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