Barbara Newhall Follett

Barbara Newhall Follett (March 4, 1914 – disappeared December 7, 1939) was an American child prodigy novelist. Her first novel, The House Without Windows, was published in January 1927, when she was twelve years old. Her next novel, The Voyage of the Norman D., received critical acclaim when she was fourteen.

Early life Barbara Newhall Follett was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, on March 4, 1914, to Wilson Follett, a literary editor, critic and university lecturer, and former schoolteacher Helen Thomas Follett. She had an elder half-sister, named Grace, from her father's first marriage, as well as a younger sister, Sabra Follett, later Sabra Follett Meservey — the first woman to be admitted as a graduate student to Princeton University, in 1961. Schooled at home by her mother, Barbara showed an early aptitude for reading and writing, as she began to write her own poetry by the age of four. Somewhat a child of nature, Barbara's stories and poems often dealt with the natural world and the wilderness.

Career In 1923, when Follett was only eight years old, she began writing The Adventures of Eepersip, later titled The House Without Windows, as a birthday present for her mother using a small portable typewriter she had been given. The story concerned a young girl, named Eepersip, who runs away from home and family to live happily in nature, complete with animal friends.

Follett's next book, The Voyage of the Norman D., recounted her June 1927 journey on a coastal lumber schooner from New Haven to Nova Scotia. It was published a year later in 1928, also receiving critical acclaim in many literary publications.

However, in the same year, Follett's father abandoned her mother for another woman. The event was a devastating blow to Follett, who was deeply attached to her father. Subsequently, her family fell upon hard times. By the age of 16, as the Great Depression was deepening, Follett was working as a secretary in New York City.

Follett's body was never found, and law enforcement did not find evidence either indicating or excluding foul play. The date and circumstances of her death were not established. Mills explained that the body was found on Pulsifer Hill in Holderness, New Hampshire, from a farmhouse where Follett and Rogers had a long-standing rental agreement. The possessions found with the body were consistent with Follett's belongings. However, local police were unaware of her disappearance and had no record of it. The cause of death was determined to be suicide, as a bottle containing barbiturate residue was found at the scene—a substance Follett was known to have taken following her return to Boston in August, 1939.