Kate Douglas Wiggin’s Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm has entertained young readers for years, thanks to its star Rebecca, whose warmth, intelligence, and adventurous spirit make her one of America’s most loved characters of all time. But how did Wiggin come up with this rare early 20th century protagonist? And is she, as some might argue, a self-portrait of the author?
Wiggin’s life offers some answers, and so does Rebecca, who proves that some of the best story characters come from a mysterious place, deep inside ourselves.
Kate Wiggin’s Life
Born in Philadelphia on September 28, 1856, Kate Douglas Wiggin was hit with tragedy early on in her life. Her father, a Harvard-educated lawyer, died while on a business trip when Wiggin was just three. Although Wiggin barely had the chance to know this “brilliant, gifted” man, according to her autobiography My Garden of Memory, she carried his traits and always felt a “close kinship” with him.
Wiggin’s mother eventually remarried, and the family moved to Hollis, Maine, where Wiggin spent most of her youth. In 1873, she graduated from Abbot Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. Soon after, the family relocated again – this time to California. In 1881, she married an old childhood friend, Samuel Wiggin, but not before organizing and opening the first free kindergarten school in the American West, in San Francisco.
The school served two purposes for Wiggin. Not only was it a way to pursue her lifelong love of childhood education, it also gave her a reason to write books – to raise money for the school. Wiggin’s first book, titled The Story of Patsy, was soon followed by the immensely popular The Birds’ Christmas Carol and Timothy’s Quest. She also collaborated with her sister Nora on many other books.
Of course, her most memorable work is Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, which she wrote in 1903 and which became a best seller with a play, film, and second book to its credit. By this time, Samuel Wiggin had died and Kate had remarried. Despite her love of children, she never bore any with either husband. Her character Rebecca, however, might well be an image of the child she never had – or, more likely, of herself in youth.
The Birth of Wiggin’s Rebecca
How Wiggin created her character Rebecca, she says in her autobiography, is a story for psychics, although she considers herself “not in the least a psychic person.” Even so, as she lay recovering from a lengthy illness in a “sort of waking dream,” Rebecca sprang to life. Wiggin recalls the details of the illusion with precision, from the girl’s “long braids floating in the breeze,” to her “poking [the stage-coach driver] with a tiny frilled parasol.”
Even Rebecca’s name, according to Wiggin, popped into her mind mysteriously, “by a sort of lightning express.” Once Rebecca was born, Wiggin couldn’t get her out of her head. The only way to find out more about this curious character was to write her story. Wiggin began Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm while she convalesced, spending a month or more getting to know her main character.
Rebecca and Wiggin's Similarities
As to comparisons between Rebecca and Wiggin, the author admits none. Yet it’s hard to deny the similarities. Both grew up in Maine, moved from one place to the next, loved reading and writing, and possessed inquisitive yet compassionate natures. Anne Scott MacLeod, in 20th Century Children’s Writers, writes “those who read A Child’s Journey with Dickens may be tempted to see the young Rebecca as a self-portrait of Wiggin.”
And MacLeod may be right. After all, it’s hard to dismiss the qualities of Rebecca in Wiggin during her childhood encounter with Charles Dickens on a railroad journey. After boldly befriending him on the train, Wiggin wasted no time charming the renowned author with her questions, praise, enthusiasm – and honesty, admitting that she had skipped over the dull parts of his books (adding, “not the short dull parts, but the long ones”).
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm – a Writer’s Perspective
Although Wiggin denies in her autobiography that her book characters are anything but fictitious, she explains that she never creates a character “whose mental processes and language I do not feel that I know as well as if they were my own.” At the same time, Wiggin emphasizes that the incidents and experiences of her characters, while possibly patterned after her own, never are her own.
What writers can take away from Kate Douglas Wiggin is simple but sound advice: Write what you know, and get to know the story’s main characters well – whether they’re a culmination of the author’s traits or a figment of the imagination. As for Rebecca? Perhaps she’s a little of both.
For information on another praiseworthy 20th century children's author, see: Danish Children's Author Virginia Allen Jensen Spread Reading.
Sources:
- Doyle, Brian. Who’s Who of Children’s Literature. New York: Schocken Books, 1968.
- Standley, Laura, Ed. 20th Century Children’s Writers (4th Ed.). Detroit: St. Louis Press, 1995.
- Wiggin, Kate. My Garden of Memory. Boston: Houghton, 1923.
- Wiggin, Kate. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1994.
Susie Yakowicz - Susie Yakowicz is a Minnesota freelance writer whose work has appeared in dozens of publications for children and adults.
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