Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch

"Lemme hold the muff" cried Australia. "No, me-me!" shrieked Europena. Original illustration for the first illustrated edition of Alice Caldwell Hegan's Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch

Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch is a 1901 novel by American author Alice Hegan Rice, telling of a southern family's humorously coping with poverty. The book was highly popular on its release,[1] and has been adapted to film several times.

Rice was inspired to write the book during her "philanthropic work in a Louisville, Kentucky slum area, where she met an optimistic and cheerful woman" who served as the model for the book's main character.[1]

The setting of the book is a white turn-of-the-century urban slum whose inhabitants two somewhat wealthy individuals want to help. The title character is a widow with several daughters -- named after the continents, because she thinks that geographical names are refined -- and an employed young son, who dies before the middle of the book.

In 1904 the book was premiered as a Broadway play starring Madge Carr Cook.[2]

As of 1997, the book had sold more than 650,000 copies in a hundred printings.[1]

Film adaptations include:

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lowell Hayes Harrison, A New History of Kentucky (1997), p. 324.
  2. Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch on Broadway at Savoy Theatre, Sept. 1904-Jan. 1905

External links


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