Other editions of book Aunt Jane's Nieces

Aunt Jane's Nieces is a ten-novel series written by L. Frank Baum under the pen name of Edith Van Dyne.The series was the second greatest success of Baum's literary career. Toward the end of Baum's life the books about Aunt Jane's Nieces were in fact outselling the Oz books. After the 1920s the books were largely forgotten but have recently been rediscovered by scholars and readers alike. The series follows the adventures of Louise Merrick, Elizabeth De Graf, and Patsy Doyle; nieces of Jane Merrick, a wealthy, elderly, difficult woman.The Collection•Aunt Jane's Nieces•Aunt Jane's Nieces - Abroad•Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville•Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work•Aunt Jane's Nieces in Society•Aunt Jane's Nieces and Uncle John•Aunt Jane's Nieces on Vacation•Aunt Jane’s Nieces on The Ranch•Aunt Jane's Nieces out West•Aunt Jane's Nieces in the Red Cross

The cousins' benign and eccentric patron, Uncle John Merrick, devotes much of his fortune to helping others — an effort managed in its details by Patsy's father Major Doyle. These efforts do not always yield financially sound results. In one case, Merrick and Doyle loaned a few thousand dollars to a young inventor named Joseph Wegg for a patent he was developing — but Wegg lost a patent lawsuit, and Merrick now owns the collateral on the loan, a farm in a remote region of upper New York State. In his capricious way, Uncle John decides to take his nieces to the farm to escape the city's heat in the approaching summer. He arranges for a real-estate agent to get the farmhouse in good order and ships crates of furnishings to the place, sight unseen.Merrick and the girls come north, and find the farmhouse a surprisingly appealing place. The local inhabitants of a tiny village in the Adirondack mountains are naturally interested in the new residents; they call Merrick "the nabob." The cousins quickly become interested in the family of the previous owner. Joe Wegg's father had been a retired sea captain, and something of a recluse; his close friend Will Thompson went mad when Captain Wegg died, and both their fortunes mysteriously disappeared. The girls meet and become friends with Thompson's daughter Ethel, the local schoolteacher. Also, the cousins (with Louise in the lead; she takes a more prominent role in this book than in the previous volumes) decide that Captain Wegg was murdered and robbed, and they set out in search of suspects.They pry into the local past, with limited success. Matters begin to clear when Joe Wegg returns home to convalesce after a car accident. The girls are dispirited to learn that there was no murder and no robbery. It is Uncle John who unravels a genuine mystery, as to the fate of the Wegg and Thompson fortunes. He recovers a missing property deed that ensures that Joe Wegg and Ethel Thompson can marry in comfort and security. (non illustrated)

Aunt Jane's Nieces is the title of a juvenile novel published by Reilly & Britton in 1906, and written by L. Frank Baum under the pen name "Edith Van Dyne."[1] Since the book was the first in a series of novels designed for adolescent girls, its title was applied to the entire series of ten books, published between 1906 and 1918. The book and the series were designed to appeal to the same audience as Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and Little Men. This was expressly stipulated in Baum's contract with Reilly & Britton, which stated: Baum shall deliver to the Reilly and Britton Co. on or before March 1, 1906 the manuscript of a book for young girls on the style of the Louisa M. Alcott stories, but not so good, the authorship to be ascribed to "Ida May McFarland," or to "Ethel Lynne" or some other mythological female. Odin’s Library Classics is dedicated to bringing the world the best of humankind’s literature from throughout the ages. Carefully selected, each work is unabridged from classic works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or drama.

Lyman Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919), better known as L. Frank Baum, was an American author chiefly famous for his children's books, particularly The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its sequels. He wrote a total of 14 novels in the Oz series, plus 41 other novels, 83 short stories, over 200 poems, and at least 42 scripts. He made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and the nascent medium of film; the 1939 adaptation of the first Oz book would become a landmark of 20th century cinema. His works anticipated such century-later commonplaces as television, augmented reality, laptop computers (The Master Key), wireless telephones (Tik-Tok of Oz), women in high-risk and action-heavy occupations (Mary Louise in the Country), police corruption and false evidence (Phoebe Daring), and the ubiquity of advertising on clothing (Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work).

The cousins' benign and eccentric patron, Uncle John Merrick, devotes much of his fortune to helping others — an effort managed in its details by Patsy's father Major Doyle. These efforts do not always yield sound results. In one case, Merrick and Doyle loaned a few thousand dollars to a young inventor named Joseph Wegg for a patent he was developing — but Wegg lost a patent lawsuit, and Merrick now owns the collateral on the loan, a farm in a remote region of upper New York State. In his capricious way, Uncle John decides to take his nieces to the farm to escape the city's heat in the approaching summer. He arranges for a real-estate agent to get the farmhouse in good order and ships crates of furnishings to the place, sight unseen. Merrick and the girls come north, and find the farmhouse a surprisingly appealing place. The local inhabitants of a tiny village in the Adirondack mountains are naturally interested in the new residents; they call Merrick "the nabob." The cousins quickly become interested in the family of the previous owner. Joe Wegg's father had been a retired sea captain, and something of a recluse; his close friend Will Thompson went mad when Captain Wegg died, and both their fortunes mysteriously disappeared. The girls meet and become friends with Thompson's daughter Ethel, the local schoolteacher. Also, the cousins (with Louise in the lead; she takes a more prominent role in this book than in the previous volumes) decide that Captain Wegg was murdered and robbed, and they set out in search of suspects. They pry into the local past. Matters begin to clear when Joe Wegg returns home to convalesce after a car accident. The girls are dispirited to learn that there was no murder and no robbery. It is Uncle John who unravels a genuine mystery, as to the fate of the Wegg and Thompson fortunes. He recovers a missing property deed that ensures that Joe Wegg and Ethel Thompson can marry in comfort and security.