Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Mary Johnston Papers, Accession 3588-b, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Acquisition Information

Purchase, 1988 November 21

Funding Note

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Scope and Content

This collection of eight items, 1913-1914, chiefly letters from Mary Johnston , concern her work entitled The Witch. A letter, November 7, 1913, to Ferris Greenslet of Houghton Mifflin Company , discusses the reception of her latest book Hagar; her progress on a current work entitled "Rhoda Amidon" and her concerns whether or not to continue; her idea "that a strong romance might be based upon the witch persecution either in England or America , or in both"; and her concerns over meeting serial demands for The Century and her request for his assistance in communicating with Robert Sterling Yard . A letter, November 10, 1913, states that she is inclined to write The Witch and offers it for a serial; and, that her intent is "still to grind the feminist axe." There is also a synopsis of The Witch.

Letters of January 1914 to Robert Sterling Yard , editor of The Century, discuss her progress on The Witch as a serial for the magazine. These letters are chiefly in answer to Robert Sterling Yard 's suggestions and criticisms of her first installment. Her proposal of a rearrangement of the chapters without other alterations in the text, and her further explanations of her method of writing, in an attempt to reach an agreement, was apparently not met with approval. After several communications, the manuscript was withdrawn from consideration.