Aunt Jane’s Nieces on Vacation

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L. Frank Baum wrote the 1912 book Aunt Jane's Nieces on Vacation under the pen name "Edith Van Dyne." Baum's intended title was Aunt Jane's Nieces in Journalism, which is more accurate, but the publisher changed it without telling him, much to his chagrin. To begin with, the title is accurate enough. Returning to their holiday home in Millville, upstate New York, are John Merrick and his nieces. Patsy Doyle, Beth De Graf, and Louise Merrick Weldon, the three girls, get tired of taking vacations and want to get more involved in town life. Since Beth reads newspapers frequently, they plan to start their own newspaper with Uncle John's funding, and stereotype plates from the wire service liberally strewn with local news and rumors. Louise is mostly in charge of the latter. As was typical of female-run businesses at the period, her husband, Arthur Weldon, has his name listed first on the masthead, which forces him into a duel with one of the yokels. However, the issues brought by local greedy mill owners trying to con the town become the main plot. White ethnics make up the majority of the workforce, which the locals despise.