Susan Coolidge

What Katy Did Next Susan Coolidge

What Katy Did Next (1886) is a children's book by Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, working under the pen name Susan Coolidge. It follows the stories What Katy Did (1872), What Katy Did At School (1873) and tells the adventures of Katy Carr as she travels to Europe. The book opens by reintroducing the Carr family and introducing the widow Mrs. Ashe. Mrs. Ashe has her nephew, Walter, over for a visit and it is discovered that he has scarlet fever. Anxious that her only daughter Amy should not contract the disease, Amy is sent to live with the Carrs where she builds up a particular rapport with the eldest daughter Katy. Following Walter's recovery, Mrs. Ashe decides that she should have a vacation to Europe and asks that Katy be her travel companion. Initially reluctant due to familial obligations, Katy is persuaded by her father to go and is given $300 for the trip. Before she begins her travels, Katy stops in Boston to visit her old friend Rose Red Browne from Hillsover. It is discovered that she has since gotten married to a man named Deniston and had a child by him. Whilst both ladies are affectionate for the baby, they disagree over the natural world which the self-confessed "Bostonian" Rose regards with disdain while Katy is enamored by all things natural. A reunion of the Hillsover girls is organised in Rose's house with Mary Silver, Esther Dearbon, Ellen Gray, and Alice Gibbons in attendance. The girls reminisce about their time at Hillsover and it is discovered what has happened to previous characters; Miss Jane is still teaching, Lilly Page is in Europe while Bella is teaching out on the prairies. Rose Red jokes that if Bella is scalped by the Indians, they will know her by her dreadful hair pomatum. Susan Coolidge was born on January 29, 1835 into the wealthy, influential New England Dwight family, in Cleveland, Ohio. She spent much of her childhood in New Haven Connecticut after her family moved there in 1852. Worked as a nurse during the American Civil War (1861-1865), after which she started to write. She never married, and resided at her family home in Newport, Rhode Island, until her death. She edited The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mrs. Delaney (1879) and The Diary and Letters of Frances Burney (1880). She is best known for her classic children's novel What Katy Did (1872).