The Washington herald., 1921-04-12
CREATOR OF .FIvE
LITTLE PEPPERS, HERE.

~zfMHT rni.i".T u lit'II
CREATOR OF .FIvE
LITTLE PEPPERS, HERE.
"Oh. 1 did hate SO to kill Mr..
Pepper in order that the Five Lit
tie Peppers" would do for their
mother!" sighed Mrs. Daniel Lo-
throp yesterday as In the clubhouse
Of the League OF American Pen
Women. she told the story Of how
she came to write the popular ser,e.
OF juveniles which have delighted
hundreds Of thousands Of Ameri-
cans. young and old.
Mrs. Lothrop, better known to her
readers as Margaret Sidney, arrived
In Washington from California yes
terday afternoon. As the founder
OF the Children of the American
revolution she Is here for the Con-
sress OF the d. A. r. and will also
eAhioit her works at the Authors
Book Fair.
1t is a good many years since tn.
Five Little Peppers" and The Lit
tie Brown House" were conceived
by Margaret Sidney, but she stIII
lives with her characters as she ala
In the days when she first eave
them to the world. To her, Phron-
sic, Joel and the others are lust as
much alive and real as you or I.
WISHED FOR A "LITTLE
BROWN HOUSE, AS CHILD.
l asked her how she happened To
think of the characters.
1T all sfarfA whnn
pr girl, in New England" Mrs.
Lothrop said. MY father was a sue
cessful architect and we always had
everything we wanted. was not
satisfied as a little girl, and wanted
to change places with children who
did not have a comfortable home
and indulgent parents. l wanted to
live " a little brown house in the
country and keep pigs and have
cows
Here Mrs. Lothrop paused to re-
late an anecdote she tells OF her
self as a child. Playing one day.
another little girl asked her what
her father did.
''Oh, he Is an artichOke," she re-
piled with a great deal of dignity.
And after that the children looked
up to her as the child OF such an
illustrious parent.
LARGE COUNTRY HOUSE.
WAS A DISAPPOINTMENT
And so she longed for the little
brown house. One day her pa
rents took her to visit a friend in
the country. But the house of her
fathers friend was not the little
brown house of her childish dreams.
Instead, il was a well appointed
country place with a large house.
When she returned to the city she
told her parents that she was going
to make a little brown house of her
own. And she did. Just as soon as
she reached young womanhood she
wrote the first of the Pepper"
stories. They were published in the
Wide Awake" magazine which in
that day enjoyed wide circulation.
The Pepper" family was no
sooner created than there was suf-
ficient demand for a book. and then
another book. and still another, un-
til in the Five Little Peppers"
series the children Of America had
a story of childhood that will never
grow old.
The first four volumes were pro-
duced in serial order: Five Little
Peppers and How They Crew."
Five Little Peppers Midway" (writ-
ten at the time of the Chicago Ex-
position in 1899; Five Little Pep
pers Grown Up" and lastly. "Phron-
sic Pepper"
STORIES DEPICT HOME,
POVERTY AND LOVE
In succeeding volumes. to keep up
with the demand, the writer gave
an account OF detailed doings of the
Pepper family. Throughout the
series runs the story of home life,
poverty and love cheerfully given.
despite all adversely.
Mrs. Lothrop's husband, Daniel
Lothrop, founder of the publishing
house of D. Lothrop & Co., also
contributed notably to the enjoy
ment of young readers of America
TT was my husbands aim to
give the children something more
substantial in fiction than the
wishy-washy type of Juvenile which
was so common in this country in
the sixties and seventies, the San
lOTu type VI
story, crowded with impossible
goody-goody characters" Mrs. Lo-
throp said.
In 1883 Mr.. Lothrop performed
a service TO the admirers of Haw-
thofne by buying the historic house
occupied by Hawthorne at Concord.
Mrs. Lothrop bought the Orchard
house on the Lexington road in the
same town, and later turned 1t over
to the Louisa May Alcott Memorial
Association as a lasting MEMORIAL
to Miss Alcott.
Mrs. Lothrop's chief interest is
now in the order of the Children
of the American Revolution. The
junior order will hold its annual
congress Saturday in conjunction
with the annual gathering OF the
d. A. r. +. w. q.