E-text prepared by Al Haines
[Frontispiece: Portrait of Mrs. Wiggin]
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
KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN.
It is an advantage for an author to have known many places anddifferent sorts of people, though the most vivid impressions arecommonly those received in childhood and youth. Mrs. Wiggin, as she isknown in literature, was Kate Douglas Smith; she was born inPhiladelphia, and spent her young womanhood in California, but when avery young child she removed to Hollis in the State of Maine, and sinceher maturity has usually made her summer home there; her earliestrecollections thus belong to the place, and she draws inspiration forher character and scene painting very largely from this New Englandneighborhood.
Hollis is a quiet, secluded place, a picturesque but almost desertedvillage--if the few houses so widely scattered can be termed avillage--located among the undulating hills that lie along the lowerreaches of the Saco River. Here she plans to do almost all her actualwriting--the story itself is begun long before--and she resorts to theplace with pent-up energy.
A quaint old house of colonial date and style, set in the midst ofextensive grounds and shaded by graceful old trees,--this is"Quillcote,"--the summer home of Mrs. Wiggin. Quillcote is typical ofmany old New England homesteads; with an environment that is very closeto the heart of nature, it combines all that is most desirable andbeautiful in genuine country life. The old manor house is located on asightly elevation commanding a varied view of the surrounding hills andfertile valleys; to the northwest are to be seen the foot-hills of Mt.Washington, and easterly a two hours' drive will bring one to OldOrchard Beach, and the broad, blue, delicious ocean whose breezes aregenerously wafted inland to Quillcote.
Mrs. Wiggin is thoroughly in love with this big rambling house, fromgarret to cellar. A genuine historic air seems to surround the entireplace, lending an added charm, and there are many impressivecharacteristics of the house in its dignity of architecture, which seemto speak of a past century with volumes of history in reserve. A fewsteps from these ample grounds, on the opposite side of the road, is apretty wooden cottage of moderate size and very attractive, the earlyhome of Mrs. Wiggin. These scenes have inspired much of the localcoloring of her stories of New England life and character. "PleasantRiver" in Timothy's Quest is drawn from this locality, and in herlatest book, The Village Watch Tower, many of her settings anddescriptions are very clos