Polly Olivers Problem

Polly Oliver's Problem, by Kate
Douglas Smith

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Douglas Smith Wiggin
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Title: Polly Oliver's Problem
Author: Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
Release Date: April 15, 2005 [eBook #15630]
Language: English
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OLIVER'S PROBLEM***
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POLLY OLIVER'S PROBLEM
by
KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN
With a Biographical Sketch, Portrait, and Illustrations
Boston, New York, and Chicago Houghton, Mifflin & Company The
Riverside Press, Cambridge
1896

[Frontispiece: Portrait of Mrs. Wiggin]

KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN.
It is an advantage for an author to have known many places and
different sorts of people, though the most vivid impressions are
commonly those received in childhood and youth. Mrs. Wiggin, as she
is known in literature, was Kate Douglas Smith; she was born in
Philadelphia, and spent her young womanhood in California, but when
a very young child she removed to Hollis in the State of Maine, and
since her maturity has usually made her summer home there; her
earliest recollections thus belong to the place, and she draws inspiration
for her character and scene painting very largely from this New
England neighborhood.
Hollis is a quiet, secluded place, a picturesque but almost deserted
village--if the few houses so widely scattered can be termed a
village--located among the undulating hills that lie along the lower
reaches of the Saco River. Here she plans to do almost all her actual

writing--the story itself is begun long before--and she resorts to the
place with pent-up energy.
A quaint old house of colonial date and style, set in the midst of
extensive grounds and shaded by graceful old trees,--this is
"Quillcote,"--the summer home of Mrs. Wiggin. Quillcote is typical of
many old New England homesteads; with an environment that is very
close to the heart of nature, it combines all that is most desirable and
beautiful in genuine country life. The old manor house is located on a
sightly elevation commanding a varied view of the surrounding hills
and fertile valleys; to the northwest are to be seen the foot-hills of Mt.
Washington, and easterly a two hours' drive will bring one to Old
Orchard Beach, and the broad, blue, delicious ocean whose breezes are
generously wafted inland to Quillcote.
Mrs. Wiggin is thoroughly in love with this big rambling house, from
garret to cellar. A genuine historic air seems to surround the entire
place, lending an added charm, and there are many impressive
characteristics of the house in its dignity of architecture, which seem to
speak of a past century with volumes of history in reserve. A few steps
from these ample grounds, on the opposite side of the road, is a pretty
wooden cottage of moderate size and very attractive, the early home of
Mrs. Wiggin. These scenes have inspired much of the local coloring of
her stories of New England life and character. "Pleasant River" in
Timothy's Quest is drawn from this locality, and in her latest book, The
Village Watch Tower, many of her settings and descriptions are very
close to existing conditions.
Her own room and literary workshop is on the second floor of the
house; it is distinctively a study in white, and no place could be more
ideal for creative work. It has the cheeriest outlook from four windows
with a southern exposure, overlooking a broad grass plat studded with
trees, where birds from early dawn hold merry carnival, and squirrels
find perfect and unmolested freedom. A peep into this sanctum is a
most convincing proof that she is a woman who dearly loves order, as
every detail plainly indicates, and it is also noticeable that any display
of literary litter is most conspicuously absent.

Interesting souvenirs and gifts of infinite variety are scattered all over
the room, on the wainscoting, mantel, and in every available niche;
very many are from children and all are dainty tributes. A picture of an
irresistibly droll child face, of the African type and infectiously full of
mirth, is one of a great company of children who look at you from
every side and angle of the room.
Dainty old pieces of china, rare bits of bric-a-brac, the very broad and
old-time fireplaces filled with cut boughs of the spicy fir balsam, and
various antique pieces of furniture lend to the inner atmosphere of
Quillcote a fine