The grandniece of Mark Twain, Alice Jane Chandler Webster was born in July 1876 in Fredonia, New York. In 1894, she graduated in China painting from the Fredonia Normal School and joined the Lady Jane Grey School from where she graduated in 1896. Her experience here provided an inspiration for her novel Just Patty. Webster joined the Vassar College in 1897 from where she majored in English and Economics. Interested in social issues, she took up courses in penal reform and welfare. Her novels When Patty Went to College and Daddy-Long-Legs were inspired by her college experience at Vassar. Webster contributed stories to the Vassar Miscellany and wrote weekly columns for the Poughkeepsie Sunday Courier. Her first novel, When Patty Went to College was published in 1903. It describes the life of contemporary women in an all-girl’s college. In 1907, she published Jerry Junior and in 1908, The Four Pools Mystery. Much Ado About Peter was published in 1909. Webster began writing Daddy-Long-Legs (1912) after the publication of Just Patty in 1911. First serialized in the Ladies’ Home Journal, it is her most popular work. The sequel to Daddy-Long-Legs, Dear Enemy was published in November 1915. Webster died of childbirth fever on June 11, 1916.