Some time back I sort of stumbled onto some local connections for Grace Livingston Hill, who once upon a time was far and away one of the best-selling authors in America.
*Grace was born in Wellsville in 1865. She lived in Campbell from September 1883 to September 1885 (ages 18 to 20) while her father was pastor of the Presbyterian church — now an antique mall. She also briefly attended Elmira College.
*Grace’s father was frequently troubled by severe problems with his throat — bad news for a preacher — and they moved to Florida after leaving Campbell, hoping for a better climate.
*There Grace wrote her first story, later expanded to a book, to earn enough money for a family trip to Chautauqua Institute. Her mother, her father, and especially her aunt were all published authors. Aunt Isabella Macdonald Alden actually published a story about a visit to Campbell. She wrote copiously, often under the pen name Pansy. Professional librarians sneered at works by “Pansy,” which did not meet their standards for Serious Literature. By the time Grace came along librarians were getting a little more relaxed, or at least more resigned.
*Which was a good thing! Because Grace’s output outshone the rest of the family combined, even when you include Grace’s daughter’s work. “GLH” published over a hundred books between 1887 (A Chautauqua Idyll) and 1947 (Mary Arden). The exact count can be argued a little, but I make it at 116 — Danielle Steel is now up to 125.
*Grace’s readers ran into eager millions, who persevered past (and finally overcame, or maybe overwhelmed) disgruntled librarians. Perhaps Jan Karon would be a rough contemporary parallel… Grace’s books had a spiritual tinge, or at least were wholesome, and her primary readers were women, many of whom still fondly recall reading long into the night, unable to tear away from the story and the characters.
*The professionally hip have been known to call her Grace Livingston Seagull, but she being dead (since 1947) yet speaketh. An author check of our own Southern Tier Library System catalogue reveals FOURTEEN PAGES of entries for Grace Livingston Hill. To compare with other hyper-prolific writers, the system shows 46 pages for Danielle Steel, 29 for John Grisham, 23 for Isaac Asimov, 13 for Frances Hodgson Burnett, 10 for P. G. Wodehouse, 7 for Robert Silverberg, 5 for Barbara Cartland, and 1 for Horatio Alger. (These figures include books, e-books, audio books, movies, etc.)
*Of course it’s not surprising that contemporary authors would be better represented, and that interest in the older ones fades away over time. So just for the fun of it, I decided to “equalize” all that through multiplying the number of pages in each listing by the number of years since the author’s death — using “1” as the multiple for the three living authors.
*In that case we get: Burnett 2096 “popularity points”; Hill 966; Asimov 552; Wodehouse 410; Alger 117; Cartland 80; Steel 46; Grisham 29; Silverberg 7.
*While this calculation puts Grace Livingston Hill well behind Frances Hodgson Burnett (most famous for The Secret Garden, A Little Princess/Sara Crewe, and Little Lord Fauntleroy, all of which have been made into multiple movies), it also puts her decidedly ahead of Asimov and far beyond any of the others. Not bad for someone who published her first book 129 years ago!