Smith and Elizabeth Borton, adding to the “Pollyanna” readership.Īlthough her novels were essentially sentimental works of fiction, Porter, with her journalistic eye, wrote profound social commentary by including contemporary muckraking themes. After her death, the same character continued in the children’s books of Harriet L.

By 1917, Porter’s publishers had trademarked the word “Pollyanna” and “Glad.” They issued a “Glad Calendar” for recording good deeds along with the Pollyanna Annual: The Yearly Glad Book (1917). The “Pollyanna” name was also given to commercial products including a game. Walt Disney also produced the movie Pollyanna starring Hayley Mills in 1960. Pollyanna was translated into eight languages, became a play in 1916 and a motion picture star-ring Mary Pickford in 1920. Over the course of her career she wrote 16 novels in all. Her next four novels published from 1916-1920 were all in the top ten as well. Even its 1915 sequel, Pollyanna Grows Up, was fourth on the bestseller list. The eighth on the bestseller list that year, it then jumped to second in 1914. Yet her most popular work was undoubtedly her third novel Pollyanna, published in 1913. Her second Miss Billy released in 1911 attracted an even larger reader-ship. Her first novel Cross Currents, published in 1907, did fairly well. She gave up music and became a writer, the work for which she is most celebrated today. The year 1901 marked a turning point in Porter’s life. They then moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts where they lived with Eleanor’s invalid mother. During the next ten years, the couple lived in several different locales, including Chattanooga, Tennessee, New York City and Springfield, Vermont. In 1892, she married John Lyman Porter, a Corinth, Vermont businessman who became president of the National Separator and Machine Company. In addition to teaching music, she was a member of the Congregationalist Church and active in a number of organizations, including the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Boston Author’s Club. She studied voice privately in Boston, attending the New England Conservatory of Music, and sang in church choirs, concerts and gave private lessons. Early on she pursued a career in music but at a young age she also showed signs of talent in writing. Her mother was a descendant of Governor William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony, and her father was a druggist.Įleanor attended public schools, but due to ill health left high school and continued her studies under private tutors. She was the daughter of Francis Fletcher Hodgman and Llewella French Woolson Hodgman.

Best known as the Author of Pollyanna, Eleanor Porter was born in Littleton, New Hampshire.

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