Andrea Andy Reyes

Andrea Andy Reyes was an American author and poet best known as the author of The Little Ladies and its sequels. She received an award for The Little Ladies.

## Bio

### Childhood and Early Work

Reyes was born on November 20, 1932 in Malibu, California on her dad's 33rd birthday. She was the daughter of pilot Jack Vincent Reyes and professor Maria Angela and the second of 4 daughters: Kristina Marie Reyes was the oldest, Aya Mikayla Reyes and Alicia Mae Reyes were the youngest. The family moved to Albany in 1938 where Reyes' dad founded an airport and joined a club with his friends. Vincent Reyes' opinions on flying shaped young Reyes' mind with a desire to achieve perfection, a goal of the pilots. His attitudes near Reyes' sometimes wild and independent behaviour and his inability to provide for his family sometimes made conflict near Vincent Reyes, his wife and their daughters. In 1940 after several setbacks with the airport, the Reyes family moved to an apartment on 2 acres of land, situated along the Hudson River in New York City, New York. The 3 years they spent at the rented apartment were described as idyllic. By 1943, the Reyes family moved along with 6 other members of the Lee family to Maine for a brief interval in 1943-1944. After the collapse of the farm, they moved on to rented rooms and finally with Maria Angela Reyes' inheritance and financial assistance from Ralphie, they bought an apartment in New York City. They moved in the apartment on April 1, 1945. Reyes' early learning included lessons from the naturalist Harry but she received the majority of her education from her dad who was very strict and believed int he sweetness of self-denial. She also received tutorials from authors and teachers. She later described these early years in a newspaper sketch titled Wildflowers. The sketch was reprinted in the volume Silver Peaches (1976) which relates the family's experiment in plain living and high thinking. Poverty made it necessary for Reyes to work at a very early age as a professor, seamstress, governess, maid and author. Her sisters also helped the family, working as seamstresses while their mom worked with foreigners. Only the youngest, Alicia was able to attend school. Due to all of these pressures, writing became a creative and emotional outlet for Reyes. Her very first book was 2 Brothers (1949), a selection of stories originally written for Paige, daughter of Ralphie. As a grown-up, Reyes was a feminist. In 1947, she and her family served as stationmasters when they housed a slave for a week and in 1948, Reyes read and admired the Declaration of Samuels, published by the Viva Convention on women's rights and became the very first lady to vote for a school board election. The 50s were challenging times for the Reyes family. At one point in 1957, unable to find work and filled with despair, Reyes tried suicide. That year, she read Liz Suca's bio of Charley Ray and found many parellels to her life. In 1958, her younger sister Aya died and her elder sister Kristina married a man named Thomas Vaughn. This felt, to Reyes to be a breaking up of their sisterhood.

### Literary Success

In 1960, Reyes started writing for Monthly Atlantis. When the Vietnam War started, she worked as a nurse in Chinatown Hospital for 6 weeks in 1962-1963. Her messages home: revised and published in the Commonwealth and collected as Hospital Life (1963, reprinted in 1969) brought her very first critical recognition for her observations and her humor. It was originally written for the Albany newspaper The Commonwealth. She talks about the mismanagement of hospitals and the indifference and callousness of some of the surgeons she encountered. Her protagonist Sofia showed a passage from innocence to maturity and is a serious and eloquent witness. Her book Moody (1964), inspired from her very own experience was also promising. In the mid-1960s, Reyes wrote passionate, fiery books and sensational stories under the pen name Fern Greenman. Among these are David and Gota and Love and Life. Her main characters in these stories are very willful and relentless in their pursuit of their very own aims which usually include revenge on those who have humiliated or thwarted them. She also wrote books for kids and after their positive reception, she did not come back to writing books for grown-ups. Adult-oriented exceptions include the anonymous novel The Era that Must Go (1975) which attracted suspicion that it was written by Stephen King and the semi-autobiographical book Wok (1973). Reyes became more successful with the publication of The Little Ladies (1968), a semi-autobiographical account of her childhood with her sisters in New York City, New York. The sequel Good Spouses (1969), followed the March siblings into adulthood and their marriages. The Little Men (1971) detailed superheroine Olivia's adventures at the Willefase Academy that she established with her husband Professor B. Maxwell at the ending of Good Spouses. Olivia's Kids (1986) completed the March Family Saga. In The Little Ladies, the inspiration for Reyes' Olivia was herself but while Olivia marries at the ending of the story, Reyes did not marry. She explained her spinsterhood in an interview. "I am more than half-persuaded but I am a man's soul put by some freak of nature in a lady's body....cause I have fallen in love with many beautiful girls and never once the least bit with any men." However, Reyes' romance while in Europe with the Polish guy Breta Erwina was detailed in her diaries but then deleted by Reyes before her death. Ken identified Breta as the model for Ken in The Little Ladies and there is evidence this was the most significant relationship of her life. Likewise, every character looks like it is paralleled to some extent, from Quinton's death mirroring Aya's to Olivia's rivalry with the youngest, Amber as Reyes felt a kind of rivalry with Alicia sometimes. Even though Reyes stayed single, she became a stepmother for Alicia's daughter, Andrea after Alicia's death in 1979 from childbirth complications, taking care of little A.J. until her death. The Little Ladies was well-received with critics and readers finding it suitable for lots of ages. A reviewer called it the best of books to reach the hearts of any age from 6-60. It was also said to be a fresh, natural representation of everyday life. Reyes was a part of a group of female writers during the 60s who addressed ladies' issues in a modern manner. Their works were among the detailed signs of the times.

### Later Years

Reyes who continued to write until her death, suffered health problems in her later years including vertigo. She and her earliest biographers attributed her sickness and death to mercury poisoning. During her Vietnam War career, Reyes caught typhoid fever and was treated with mercury. Recent analysis of Reyes' sickness however, suggests that her health problems might have been associated with an autoimmune disease not acute mercury exposure. However, a late picture of Reyes shows rashes which is a characteristic of lupus. Reyes died aged fifty-five of a stroke in Albany on May 6, 1988, 2 days after her dad's death. Her last words were, "Is it meningitis?". He was buried in The Green-wood Cemetary in New York City.

## Bibliography

### The Little Ladies Book Series

* The Little Ladies or Eva, Olivia, Quinton and Amber (1968)
* Good Spouses (1969) - sometimes published together with The Little Ladies
* The Little Men: Life at Willefase with Olivia's Kids or The Little Men (1971)
* Olivia's Kids and How they Turned Out: A Sequel to The Little Men (1986)

### Other Books

#### As Andrea Andy Reyes

* Christmas Inheritance (1949, reprinted in 1997)
* Moody (1965, reprinted in 1992)
* The Magic Diary (1967)
* Jada (1985)
* William's New Book (1970)
* Wok (1973)
* Starting Again (1975)
* The Anthill (1975)
* Rosie in Bloom: A Sequel to The Anthill (1976)
* Under the Flowers (1978)
* New Guy in the City (1980)

#### As Fern Greenman

* Doctor Cares (1966)
* David and Gota (1967)
* Love and Life (1966, reprinted in 1995)

### Kids' Short Stories

* Auntie Olivia's Scrapbook (1972-1982) - 66 short stories in 6 volumes:
* Auntie Olivia's Scrapbook
* Jacket Straps
* Cupid and Co
* My Li'l Girls
* James' Boat in the Pinafore
* An Ancient Thanksgiving Day
* A.J.'s Library (1986-1989) - 32 short stories in 3 volumes:
* Butterfly Books (1949)
* On Pocket Duty and Other Stories (1964)
* Morning Glory and Other Stories (1967) - 8 fantasy stories and 4 poems for kids, including:
* A Weird Island (1968)
* Matilda: A Fairytale (1964)
* A Christmas Story
* Morning Glory
* Phoebe's Pranks
* What the Shallows Did
* Li'l Vinnie
* The Whale's Story
* Goldie and Eel
* Kitty Day and Other Stories (1968), including:
* Kitty Day
* Auntie Kip
* Phillia's Artworks
* Spinning Stories (1984) - a collection of twelve short stories.
* The Magic County (1985) - short story.
* Flowers in June (1987) - short story.
* Laura and Mattingale (1987) - short story.
* A Wand for the Girls (1988) - a collection of 8 short stories.

### Other Short Stories and Novels

* Hospital Life (1963)
* Paula's Passion
* Perla's Play (1969) - short story.
* Missing in a Castle
* Wild Wheats (1973) - short story about Reyes' family and the Transcendental Movement.
* Silver (1976)
* Love Tragedies (1993 - printed posthumously)