Marjorie Daw and Other Stories

Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1895. Early printing. Hard Cover. Very Good/No Jacket. 0x0x0. Early printing. Light stain along top edge. 1895 Hard Cover. Green cloth boards with gilt decor and titles on spine and front board, top edge gilt. "Marjorie Daw" is a short story by Thomas Bailey Aldrich. One of Aldrich's first short stories, it was first published in 1869 before its inclusion in the book collection Marjorie Daw and Other People in 1873. The story is written as a series of letters between two friends. When Jack breaks his leg, and can't get about in fine summer weather, Ed starts writing about a beautiful and kind young woman named Marjorie Daw. Jack becomes madly smitten, and determined to intervene. At last, Ed confesses what had been meant as a diversion: "For oh, dear Jack [. . . ] -- there isn't any Marjorie Daw!" ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Thomas Bailey Aldrich, (born Nov. 11, 1836, Portsmouth, N.H., U.S.—died March 19, 1907, Boston), poet, short-story writer, and editor whose use of the surprise ending influenced the development of the short story. He drew upon his childhood experiences in New Hampshire in his popular classic The Story of a Bad Boy (1870). Aldrich left school at 13 to work as a merchant’s clerk in New York City and soon began to contribute to various newspapers and magazines. After publication of his first book of verse, The Bells (1855), he became junior literary critic on the New York Evening Mirror and later subeditor of the Home Journal. From 1881 to 1890 he was editor of The Atlantic Monthly. - Britannica