Dick and Dolly (illustrated)

Dick and Dolly was published in 1909. It is the story of nine-year old orphan twins who have to move from one aunt's home to live with some other aunt in Connecticut. The twins are rambunctious, curious children, who are given to flights of fancy. In one case, they become convinced that a neighbor girl is really a fairy! Although written over 100 years ago, the issues facing orphaned children and those who care for them are as timely today as they were then.

Carolyn Wells (June 18, 1862 March 26, 1942) was an American writer and poet. Born in Rahway, New Jersey, she was the daughter of William E. and Anna Wells. She died at the Flower-Fifth Avenue Hospital in New York City in 1942.

Wells was married to Hadwin Houghton, the heir of the Houghton-Mifflin publishing empire. She had an impressive collection of volumes of poetry by others. She bequeathed her collection of Walt Whitman poetry, said to be one of the most important of its kind for its completeness and rarity, to the Library of Congress.

After finishing school she worked as a librarian for the Rahway Library Association. Her first book, At the Sign of the Sphinx (1896), was a collection of charades. Her next publications were The Jingle Book and The Story of Betty (1899), followed by a book of verse entitled Idle Idyls (1900). After 1900, Wells wrote numerous novels and collections of poetry.

Carolyn Wells wrote a total of more than 170 books. During the first ten years of her career, she concentrated on poetry, humor and children's books. According to her autobiography, The Rest of My Life (1937), she heard That Affair Next Door (1897), one of Anna Katharine Green's mystery novels, being read aloud and was immediately captivated by the unraveling of the puzzle. From that point onward she devoted herself to the mystery genre. Among the most famous of her mystery novels were the Fleming Stone Detective Stories whichaccording to Allen J. Hubin's Crime Fiction IV: A Comprehensive Bibliography, 17492000 (2003)number 61 titles. Wells's The Clue (1909) is on the Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone list of essential mysteries. She was also the first to conduct a (brief, in this case) annual series devoted to the best short crime fiction of the previous year in the U.S., beginning with The Best American Mystery Stories of the Year (1931) (though others had begun a similar British series in 1929). Wells also wrote under the pseudonym of Roland Wright. - Source: Wikipedia

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