The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Village Watch-Tower, by
(AKA Kate Douglas Riggs) Kate Douglas Wiggin

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Title: The Village Watch-Tower

Author: (AKA Kate Douglas Riggs) Kate Douglas Wiggin

Posting Date: August 7, 2008 [EBook #936]
Release Date: June, 1997

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VILLAGE WATCH-TOWER ***

Produced by R. McGowan, and E. P. McGowan

THE VILLAGE WATCH-TOWER

by Kate Douglas Wiggin

INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EDITION

These days the name of Kate Douglas Wiggin is virtually unknown. But
if one mentions the title "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm," recognition (at
least in America) is instant. Everyone has heard of Rebecca; her story
has been in print continuously since it was first published in 1903.
It is certainly Mrs. Wiggin's most famous book, and the only one of her
many books that is still in print. Everything else she wrote has slipped
into complete obscurity. Occasionally in an antique shop, one may
still find a copy of her immensely popular seasonal book, "The Birds'
Christmas Carol", but that is about the extent of what is readily
available, even second-hand.

The Birds' Christas Carol is available as our Etext #721, Nov. 1996.

In 1904, Jack London wrote (from Manchuria!) to say that Rebecca had won
his heart. ("She is real," he wrote, "she lives; she has given me many
regrets, but I love her.") Some eighty years later I happened to pick
up and read "Rebecca" for the first time. The book was so thoroughly
enjoyable that when I had finished it, I began at once a search for
other works by the same author--especially for a sequel to "Rebecca",
which seemed practically to demand one. There was never a sequel
written, but "The New Chronicles of Rebecca" was published in 1907, and
contained some further chapters in the life of its heroine. I had to be
satisfied with that, for the time being. Then, well over a year after
jotting down Mrs. Wiggin's name on my list of authors to "purchase on
sight", I finally ran across a copy of "The Village Watch-Tower"; and it
was not even a book of which I had heard. It was first published in
1895 by Houghton,