Just Patty

Alice Jane Chandler Webster, Mrs. McKinney (1876-1916) was an American writer and author of many books published under the pseudonym Jean Webster. In 1897, Webster entered Vassar College as a member of the class of 1901 majoring in English and economics. She was a contributor of stories to the Vassar Miscellany and as part of her sophomore year English class, began writing a weekly column of Vassar news and stories for the Poughkeepsie Sunday Courier. After graduating she began writing When Patty Went to College, in which she described contemporary women's college life. After some struggles finding a publisher, it was issued in March 1903 to good reviews. She then started writing the short stories that would make up Much Ado About Peter (1909), and with her mother visited Italy for the winter of 1903-4 including a 6-week stay in a convent in Palestrina, while she wrote The Wheat Princess. It was subsequently published in 1905. She supported women's suffrage and education for women. Her other works include: Jerry Junior (1907), The Four Pools Mystery (1908), Just Patty (1911), Daddy-Long-Legs (1912) and Dear Enemy (1915).