Myra Kelly found in a public school among the poor foreigners of New York's East Side material for her best book, Little Citizens. It is written with a keen appreciation of their amusing ways and sayings, and of sympathy with them. A chapter taken at random will prove delightful reading.
Carolyn Wells is well known as the author of the wittiest of verses; but she has also some books no less attractive. A Matrimonial Bureau, At the Sign of the Sphinx, and The Gordon Elopement (collaborated) are filled with freakish situations and clever sayings. Read from the first.
In addition to these, clubs may read Anne Warner's The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary, Margaret Cameron's The Involuntary Chaperon, and others; see also the humorist of several decades ago, Marietta Holley, and her books on Samantha Allen.
VI—STORIES OF DOMESTIC LIFE
Mary Stewart Cutting has been a most successful writer of short stories about ordinary home life. She is marvelously true to facts, but puts them in a fresh and humorous way. Her Little Stories of Courtship and Little Stories of Married Life show us people we all know. Her longer stories, The Unforeseen and The Wayfarers, have the same good sense, the same bright way of treating difficulties. Choose selections from her first two books.
Ellen Olney Kirk writes in a quiet style of delightful people who lead uneventful lives. Her books are not new to-day, but they are always interesting. Select from The Story of Margaret Kent or Marcia.
Alice Brown depicts home life in New England, but always introduces the element of the unusual, either in plot or characters. There is a certain strength about all she does. Read from Meadow-Grass or The Country Road.
Kathleen Norris has written a deeply moving story called Mother; it tells the story of a family of ordinary parents and children with marvelous fidelity to the commonplaceness of their lives, but it is a picture of tenderness and an appreciation of what a real mother is and does.
Margaret E. Sangster's Eastover Parish is a charming study from real life.