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Daddy-Long-Legs is a 1912 epistolary novel by the American writer Jean Webster. It follows the protagonist, Jerusha "Judy" Abbott, as she leaves an orphanage and is sent to college by a benefactor whom she has never seen. The novel was initially serialized in the April–September 1912 issues of the Ladies' Home Journal, and first published in book form by The Century Company in October 1912.
One day, after the asylum's trustees have made their monthly visit, Judy is informed by the asylum's dour matron that one of the trustees has offered to pay her way through college. He has spoken to her former teachers and thinks she has potential to become an excellent writer. He will pay her tuition and give her a generous monthly allowance. Judy must write him a monthly letter because he believes that letter-writing is important to the development of a writer. However, she will never know his identity; she must address the letters to Mr. John Smith, and he never will reply.
Judy catches a glimpse of the shadow of her benefactor from the back, and knows he is a tall long-legged man. Because of this, she jokingly calls him Daddy-Long-Legs. She attends a women’s college on the East Coast of the United States. She illustrates her letters with childlike line drawings, also created by Jean Webster.
The book chronicles Judy's educational, personal, and social growth. One of the first things she does at college is to change her name to Judy. She designs a rigorous reading program for herself and struggles to gain the basic cultural knowledge to which she, growing up in the bleak environment of the orphanage, never was exposed.
During her stay, she befriends Sallie McBride (the most entertaining person in the world) and Julia Rutledge Pendleton (the least so) and sups with them and Leonora Fenton.
Afterwards, Judy graduates from college and is pursuing her dream to become a writer. However, Julia's uncle Jervis proposes to Judy and she refuses because someone like her wouldn't be good enough to marry a Pendleton. After this, Jervis catches a deadly illness during his travel at Canada. Meanwhile, Judy is excited to be invited to meet Daddy Long-Legs in New York City. When she arrives, she discovers that Jervis is Daddy Long-Legs. She reconsiders the proposal and accepts Jervis to be her husband.
Sallie McBride - Judy's college friend
Julia Rutledge Pendleton - Judy's college friend and Jervis's niece
Jervis Pendleton who is eventually revealed to be Judy's benefactor
Jimmy McBride - Sallie's older brother
Daddy Longlegs - The mysterious man that sent Judy Abbot to college and financially supported her
A four-part adaptation was featured in 1978 in anime anthology series Manga Sekai Mukashi Banashi (1976-1979) by Dax International and Madhouse.
Ashinaga Ojisan, anime TV movie produced in 1979 by Tatsunoko Production.
The 1990 TV anime serial Watashi no Ashinaga Ojisan (My Daddy-Long-Legs) was directed by Kazuyoshi Yokota for the Nippon Animation studio as that year's installment of the studio's World Masterpiece Theater.
In India, the novel was adapted into a Malayalam movie, Kanamarayathu in 1984. Anokha Rishta, a Hindi remake by the same director was released in 1986.
The 2005 Korean movie Kidari Ajeossi has elements of Daddy-Long-Legs transferred into a modern setting.
In 2009, the novel was made into a two-person musical play by John Caird (book) and Paul Gordon (music), which premiered at the Rubicon Theatre Company (Ventura, California) and TheatreWorks (Palo Alto, California).TheatreWorks program, January 2010 On September 27, 2015, the musical premiered Off-Broadway at the Davenport Theatre with Megan McGinnis and Paul Alexander Nolan.
In 2020, the musical of Paul Gordon and John Caird was staged by director Aleksey Frandetti in Russia on the Instagram, transferring the events of the novel into the 21st century. First Instagram musical In 2021, the musical play made into Dear Mr. Smith and was performed by the same actors Ivan Ozhogin and Yulia Dyakina at the Theatre "Shelter of Comedians" by the same director.
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