With its wonderfully infectious good cheer, Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter spawned a real-life ‘Glad’ movement and endures today as a true classic of children’s literature. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features an afterword by children’s book critic Imogen Russell Williams.When her beloved father dies, Pollyanna is sent to live with her strict Aunt Polly in the dour town of Beldingsville, Vermont. Luckily, Pollyanna has the Glad Game – a joyous, warm-hearted exercise where she finds the best in every situation. Whether delighting in the view from her bare attic room, or interpreting her punishment of a meagre supper as a wonderful treat, Pollyanna cannot help but see the best in the world, and inadvertently changes it for the better as she goes.

Eleanor Hodgman Porter was born in Littleton, New Hampshire, in 1868. She was musically talented from early childhood and trained at the New England Conservatory before embarking on a career as a singer. She married John Lyman Porter in 1892 and turned her hand to writing, publishing her first children’s book, Cross Currents, in 1907. A prolific writer, Porter followed this with fourteen more books and innumerable short stories. She is best remembered for Pollyanna, the eponymous story of an irrepressibly optimistic young orphan, which brought her huge international success. She died in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1920.