Frances Little

Who was Frances Little?

Frances Little was the pseudonym of American author Fannie Caldwell. Caldwell and her husband, businessman J.D. Macaulay, made their home on Fourth Street in Louisville, Kentucky. Her debut book The Lady of the Decoration was published in New York City in 1906 and would be her most successful work. The "Lady" rode the wave of American interest and support for Japan in the Russo-Japanese War, and supports the Japanese cause throughout. Set between 1901 and 1905, it is written as the diary as a young missionary kindergarten teacher in Hiroshima, Japan who before and during the Russo-Japanese War. She travels to Vladivostock, Russia just before the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese Warand makes a number of critical observations. At the dawn of the 20th Century, most Americans knew very little of Japan, and Little's novel presented a view of Japanese life that captured the imagination of the reading public, who made it the No.1 bestselling novels in the United States for 1907.

Frances Little died in 1941 and was buried in the Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville. In December 2005, the Project Gutenberg published "Mr. Bamboo and the Honorable Little God, A Christmas Story" under her own married name of Fannie C. Macaulay.