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在线阅读 关于琴·韦伯斯特(Jean Webster) 的网站： Biographical NoteJean Webster, christened Alice Jane Chandler Webster, was born in Fredonia, NY on July 24, 1876. Her mother, Annie Moffett Webster, was a niece of Mark Twain. Her father, Charles Luther Webster, was Twain's partner and publisher in the ill-fated Charles L. Webster Publishing Company. From 1894-1896, Jean Webster attended the Lady Jane Grey boarding school in Binghamton, NY. It was at Lady Jane Grey that she changed her name from Alice to Jean when she discovered that her roommate was also named Alice. In 1897 she entered Vassar College as a member of the class of 1901. As an undergraduate Jean Webster wrote a weekly column of "chatty news" for the Poughkeepsie Sunday Courier and a number of stories for the Vassar Miscellany. It was also at Vassar that she met Adelaide Crapsey, the poet, who remained her close friend until Crapsey's death in 1914. After graduating from Vassar, Webster earned her living as a free-lance writer and novelist, living in New York City. Her first novel, When Patty Went to College, was published in 1903. It chronicled the trials, tribulations, and adventures of life at a women's college. Altogether Webster wrote eight novels and countless unpublished stories and plays, in a style often described as realistic, refreshing, and witty. Daddy Long-Legs, the story of an orphan whose anonymous benefactor sends her to college, was a best seller and later adapted to the stage by Henry Miller, starring Ruth Chatterton. The play enjoyed a long and successful run in New York, and also toured the Midwest, California, and London. Later film versions starred Mary Pickford and Janet Gaynor, among others. Jean Webster possessed a love of travel her entire life, beginning with a semester abroad in France, Italy, and England while at Vassar. In 1906/07 she embarked on a world tour with Ethelyn McKinney, her future sister-in-law, and Lena Weinstein, a close friend. Together the women journeyed to Egypt, India, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan. Webster also had a deep interest in many social reform movements. She was concerned for the plight of orphans and in orphan asylum reform as well as prison reform. In addition, she was a staunch suffragist. One interesting episode in Webster's life was the incident when she was called to jury duty because the authorities had assumed she was a man. Since she was a woman, however, she was not allowed to serve on a jury, much to her chagrin. For seven years Jean Webster was secretly engaged to Glenn Ford McKinney, a wealthy lawyer and son of the oil magnate John Luke McKinney. Glenn, married to another woman who was plagued by bouts of insanity and weighed down by personal problems himself, couldn't help but submit to Jean's sunny disposition and charm. He finally obtained a divorce in June of 1915, and he and Jean were married among a flurry of activity on September 7, about the same time that "Daddy Long-Legs" was touring and its sequel, Dear Enemy, was published. The McKinneys made their home at Tymor Farm, in Union Vale, Dutchess County, NY, a sanctuary of fields, deer, wild ducks, and pheasants. On the evening of June 10, 1916, the inseparable Ethelyn McKinney and Lena Weinstein accompanied Jean to Sloane Hospital in New York City for the delivery of her baby girl, Jean Webster McKinney. The next morning, June 11, Jean Webster died of complications from childbirth.
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