Lilian Garis
BornLilian C. McNamara
(1873-10-20)October 20, 1873
DiedApril 19, 1954(1954-04-19) (aged 80)
Newark, New Jersey
Pen nameMargaret Penrose
Laura Lee Hope
Occupationnovelist, juvenile fiction writer
NationalityAmerican
Genrejuvenile fiction
Notable worksMelody Lane series
Girl Scouts series
SpouseHoward R. Garis
ChildrenRoger Garis, Cleo F. Garis

Lilian C. Garis , born Lilian C. McNamara (20 October 1873 – 19 April 1954) was an American author who wrote hundreds of books of juvenile fiction between around 1915 and the early 1940s.[1] Prior to this, she was the first female reporter for the Newark Evening News in New Jersey.[2] Garis and her husband, Howard R. Garis, were possibly the most prolific children's authors of the early 20th century.

Biography

Lilian McNamara was born in 1872 in Cleveland, Ohio.[1] Her parents were Irish immigrants Edward[3] and Winifred.[1][4] Lillian wrote her own "Woman's Page" for a city paper as a teenager.[1] She attended private schools including Dunkirk Union School.[5] In 1893 her poem "Peace" was featured in the New Jersey Scrapbook of Women Writers created for the World's Columbian Exposition.[6] At this point she uses an alternate name "Lillian Mack" and lives in Newark.[6]

Lilian was in charge of "Woman's Work" in the Newark Evening News from 1895 to 1900 and was known as "Miss Mack" or "Lilian Mack".[7][8][9] Lillian was also a suffragette.[1]

Lilian Garis is one of the writers who always wrote, She expressed herself in verse from early school days and it was then predicted that Lilian Mack would one day become a writer. Justifying this sentiment, while still in high school, she took charge of the woman's page for a city paper and her work there attracted such favorable attention that she left school to take entire charge of woman's work for the largest daily in an important Eastern city.

— Advertisement in Polly and Eleanor, Lillian Elizabeth Roy. Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1922., https://c.web.umkc.edu/crossonm/lilliangarisbooks.htm

Lilian met Howard Garis at the Newark Evening News and the couple married in 1899.[3][1] In 1951, they moved from East Orange, New Jersey to Amherst, Massachusetts.[1] They had two children Roger and Cleo.[10]

For the Stratemeyer Syndicate Garis wrote under the pseudonym Margaret Penrose and Laura Lee Hope, with her works including some of the earliest books in the Bobbsey Twins series[11] as well as the Dorothy Dale series.[12] But Mrs. Garis also wrote some books under her own name.[13]

Among her 'fan' letters Lillian Garis receives some flattering testimonials of her girl readers' interest in her stories. From a class of thirty comes a vote of twenty-five naming her as their favorite author/ Perhaps in is the element of live mystery that Mrs. Garis always builds her stories upon, or perhaps it is because the girls easily can translate her own sincere interest in themselves from the stories. At any rate, her books prosper through the changing conditions of these times, giving pleasure, satisfaction, and, incidentally, that tactful word of inspiration, so important in literature for young girls. Mrs. Garis prefers to call her books 'juvenile novels' and in them romance is never lacking.

— Advertisement in Polly in the Orient, Lillian Elizabeth Roy, Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1927, https://c.web.umkc.edu/crossonm/lilliangarisbooks.htm

Lilian died April 19, 1954.[14]

Bibliography of titles written under Garis' name[13][15]

Let's Make Believe series

First published by R. F. Fenno; also by Donohue

  • Let's Make Believe We're Keeping House
  • Let's Play Circus
  • Let's Make Believe We're Soldiers

The Girl Scouts series

  • The Girl Scout Pioneers
  • The Girl Scouts at Bellaire
  • The Girl Scouts at Sea Crest
  • The Girl Scouts at Camp Comalong
  • The Girl Scouts at Rocky Ledge

Nancy Brandon set

Originally printed by Milton Bradley. Then by Grosset & Dunlap and Whitman

  • Nancy Brandon, Enthusiast (Milton Bradley's original title; renamed Nancy Brandon by Grosset & Dunlap)
  • Nancy Brandon's Mystery

Barbara Hale set

  • Barbara Hale (renamed Barbara Hale: A Doctor's Daughter)
  • Barbara Hale's Mystery Friend (renamed Barbara Hale: and Cozette)

Ted set

  • A Girl Named Ted
  • Ted and Tony

Cleo set

  • Cleo's Conquest
  • Cleo's Misty Rainbow

Connie Loring set

  • Connie Loring's Dilemma (renamed later)
  • Connie Loring's Ambition (renamed later)

Judy Jordon set

  • Judy Jordon
  • Judy Jordon's Discovery

Sally set

  • Sally for Short
  • Sally Found Out

Gloria set

  • Gloria at Boarding School
  • Gloria: A Girl and Her Dad

Joan set

  • Joan: Just a Girl
  • Joan's Garden of Adventure

Melody Lane series

Two versions were printed of the first six books, one with cover art by Ruth King and one by Pelagie Doane (best known for her work on the Judy Bolton series). The series follows Carol Duncan and her sister and friends as they solve mysteries around Melody Lane. The events they encounter are standard series book fare of the time-period; and are often criticized for their dated writing style and slow-moving plots.

  • The Ghost of Melody Lane (1933)
  • The Forbidden Trail (1933)
  • The Tower Secret (1934)
  • The Wild Warning (1934)
  • Terror at Moaning Cliff (1935)
  • The Dragon Of The Hills (1936)
  • The Mystery Of Stingman's Alley (1938)
  • The Secret of the Kashmir Shawl (1939)
  • The Hermit of Proud Hill (1940)
  • The Clue of the Crooked Key Listed as the next title in the series in "The Hermit of Proud Hill". Never published and unknown if this book was ever written.

The Riverton Mystery

  • The Riverton Mystery (1944) The unreleased manuscript was never published until 2023, after the New York Public Library gave permission for its release.[16]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Marquardt, Janet. "Howard and Lilian Garis House - 97 Spring Street". Amherst Historic. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  2. ↑ "The Once Great Newark Evening News: A Remembrance & Obituary". newarkmemories.com. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  3. 1 2 "Ancestry.com -- Family tree and censuses". Ancestry.com.
  4. ↑ Scannell's New Jersey's First Citizens and State Guide ...: Genealogies and Biographies of Citizens of New Jersey with Informing Glimpses Into the State's History, Affairs, Officialism and Institutions ... J. J. Scannell. 1917.
  5. ↑ "3 Jun 1890, Page 4 - Dunkirk Evening Observer at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  6. 1 2 Yardley, Margaret Tufts; New Jersey; World's Columbian Exposition (1893). The New Jersey scrap book of women writers. Newark, N.J.: Advertiser Printing House.
  7. ↑ "Questions and Answers". The Times Dispatch. 1949-09-19. p. 23. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  8. ↑ Dizer, John T. (1997). Tom Swift, the Bobbsey Twins, and Other Heroes of American Juvenile Literature. Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN 978-0-7734-8641-6.
  9. ↑ "Archives | Editor and Publisher". www.editorandpublisher.com. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  10. ↑ "Paid Notice: Deaths CLANCY, CLEO GARIS". The New York Times. 1998-07-01. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  11. ↑ Grimes, William. "Down the Halls of a Wonder House, the Mirrors Cracked", The New York Times, July 18, 2007. Accessed November 6, 2007. "They made a mighty team: Howard and Lilian Garis, who met as journalists in the early years of the century, turned out hundreds of Tom Swift and Bobbsey Twins titles for the Stratemeyer syndicate before Howard struck it rich with Uncle Wiggily."
  12. ↑ "Dorothy Dale". Edward Stratemeyer & the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  13. 1 2 "Worldcat - Lilian Garis".
  14. ↑ "Lillian C. McNamara Garis (1873-1954) - Find A..." www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  15. ↑ "The Lilian Garis Books By Lilian Garis". c.web.umkc.edu. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
  16. ↑ https://www.amazon.com/Riverton-Mystery-Unreleased-1944-Manuscript/dp/B0C9SNQH4Q/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3JRG44PFKGDDU&keywords=the+riverton+mystery+lilian+garis&qid=1702175798&sprefix=the+riverton+mystery+lilian+garis%2Caps%2C92&sr=8-4
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