Publisher's Synopsis
What Katy Did Next (1886) is a children's book by Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, working under the pen name Susan Coolidge. It follows the stories What Katy Did (1872), What Katy Did At School (1873) and tells the adventures of Katy Carr as she travels to Europe. Plot: The book opens by reintroducing the Carr family and introducing the widow Mrs. Ashe. Mrs. Ashe has her nephew, Walter, over for a visit and it is discovered that he has scarlet fever. Anxious that her only daughter Amy should not contract the disease, Amy is sent to live with the Carrs where she builds up a particular rapport with the eldest daughter Katy. Following Walter's recovery, Mrs. Ashe decides that she should have a vacation to Europe and asks that Katy be her travel companion. Initially reluctant due to familial obligations, Katy is persuaded by her father to go and is given $300 for the trip. Before she begins her travels, Katy stops in Boston to visit her old friend Rose Red Browne from Hillsover. It is discovered that she has since gotten married to a man named Deniston and had a child by him. Whilst both ladies are affectionate for the baby, they disagree over the natural world which the self-confessed "Bostonian" Rose regards with disdain while Katy is enamored by all things natural. A reunion of the Hillsover girls is organised in Rose's house with Mary Silver, Esther Dearbon, Ellen Gray, and Alice Gibbons in attendance. The girls reminisce about their time at Hillsover and it is discovered what has happened to previous characters; Miss Jane is still teaching, Lilly Page is in Europe while Bella is teaching out on the prairies. Rose Red jokes that if Bella is scalped by the Indians, they will know her by her dreadful hair pomatum. After they meet up, Katy departs on a steamer to England with the Ashes and following a journey where all three experience bouts of seasickness, they eventually come within view of the Irish Coast and start their trip in Europe. Katy's experience in England (Chapter 3 Story Book England) involve her being perplexed by English culture, such as when she discovers a "fine day" in England is any day it's not raining and the English muffins Dickens commended in his books are really tasteless. She also does some sight-seeing. After spending time together with Mrs. Ashe's brother, Ned, they fell in love. When Katy got home, she received a letter from Ned and blushed and ran to her room, leaving Clover and the reader thinking that Katy and Ned may get married in the future.... Sarah Chauncey Woolsey (January 29, 1835 to April 9, 1905) was an American children's author who wrote under the pen name Susan Coolidge. Background: Woolsey was born on January 29, 1835 into the wealthy, influential New England Dwight family, in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father was John Mumford Woolsey (1796-1870) and her mother Jane Andrews, and author and poet Gamel Woolsey was her niece. She spent much of her childhood in New Haven Connecticut after her family moved there in 1852.[1] Woolsey worked as a nurse during the American Civil War (1861-1865), after which she started to write. She never married, and resided at her family home in Newport, Rhode Island, until her death. She edited The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mrs. Delaney (1879) and The Diary and Letters of Frances Burney (1880). She is best known for her classic children's novel What Katy Did (1872). The fictional Carr family was modeled after her own, with Katy Carr inspired by Woolsey herself. The brothers and sisters were modeled on her four younger siblings: Jane Andrews Woolsey, born October 25, 1836, who married Reverend Henry Albert Yardley; Elizabeth Dwight Woolsey, born April 24, 1838, who married Daniel Coit Gilman and died in 1910; Theodora Walton Woolsey, born September 7, 1840; and William Walton Woolsey, born July 18, 1842, who married Catherine Buckingham Convers, daughter of Charles Cleveland Convers....
