Annabel (novel)

Annabel

First edition
Author	L. Frank Baum (as "Suzanne Metcalf")
Illustrator	H. Putnam Hall
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Young adult fiction
Publisher	Reilly & Britton
Publication date	1906
Media type	Print (hardcover)
Pages	213 pp.

Annabel: A Novel for Young Folk is a 1906 juvenile novel written by L. Frank Baum, the author famous for his series of books on the Land of Oz. The book was issued under the pen name "Suzanne Metcalf," one of Baum's various pseudonyms.Annabel was one of Baum's first efforts to write a novel for adolescent girls – who soon became one of his most important audiences.

In the years around 1900, Baum had established himself as a successful author of children's literature, most notably with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In the middle of the twentieth century's first decade, he worked to expand his reach into three other potentially lucrative markets. He published his first adult novel, The Fate of a Crown, in 1905. In 1906 came Annabel, plus Sam Steele's Adventures on Land and Sea, Baum's first book for adolescent boys. (Each of these books was released under a different pseudonym. The prolific Baum had learned from earlier experience that he ended up "competing with himself" if he issued too much material in his own name in a short period of time. As Reilly & Britton's star author, it was also important that he make it appear that the company published more authors than they did.)

Annabel, however, was apparently not the breakthrough that the author and his publisher might have hoped for. The novel is a "Horatio Alger-type story in which a virtuous vegetable-peddler discovers that his supposedly dead father is alive and rich...." Baum drives the story with multiple coincidences, and ties them together at the end with a nod to God's providence. "Apparently the book did not catch on, for its author, 'Suzanne Metcalf,' produced no more."

Still, the book was popular enough to be reprinted in a second edition. The original edition of Annabel featured illustrations by H. Putnam Hall. In the second edition of 1912, these were replaced with a new set of pictures by Joseph Pierre Nuyttens, who illustrated other Baum works, The Flying Girl, Phoebe Daring, and The Flying Girl and Her Chum, in 1911 and 1912.

Also in 1906, Baum's Aunt Jane's Nieces (by "Edith Van Dyne") proved to be a popular hit, and launched a series of ten novels for girls that was one of Baum's major successes. He followed that with his The Bluebird Books, another successful series of the same type.