The Bedtime Stories Club grows and grows and grows

About a week after the initial announcement of the Bedtime Stories Club The Kansas City Star announced that members of the club would each receive a button (pictured above) and a certificate of membership (each of which would eventually bear the signature of Thornton W. Burgess himself).  While the membership had grown steadily over the first week, it accelerated after the button announcement to the point that for a time one thousand new names were being added to the ranks each day.

In a special Bedtime Stories Club column, run daily through the months of May and June, the editors reported significant membership gains and invited readers to write in to describe the ways in which they were living up to the terms of their pledge. Much of the membership was enrolled in large blocks, whole classrooms of students (from both elementary schools, where the "Little Stories for Bedtime" had become an important part of the daily curriculum, and Sunday schools) asking for membership at once. A significant part of the membership was writing from outside the Kansas City area, informed of the club by friends and relatives. And a not insignificant portion of the membership was composed of adults.

By May 15 (the membership had already passed 15,000) the New York Globe and Boston Globe, partners in the Associated Newspapers syndicate, were writing to inquire how they might start their own clubs. (The New York Globe would go onto have a hugely successful club of its own; the Boston Globe apparently passed).

By mid-June The Star began to suggest that the club was actually having effects on the behavior of Kansas City area animals, birds in particular reported to be friendlier and more approachable (now that thousands of children had pledged not to harm them).

On July 2, 1914, when the official Bedtime Stories Club membership had reached 38,000, the editors of The Kansas City Star provided a telling passage of how they had happened to grossly underestimate the interest of readers.

When The Star started out to enlist the friends of the Little People of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows it had an idea that there might be ten or fifteen thousand boys and girls who would be willing to take the promise of kindness to birds and animals, which is all it costs to join the club. But the ten thousand mark was passed in a hurry and in a short time there were fifteen thousand wearers of the cute red and white bunny buttons. Then marching steadily on the membership reached in succession twenty thousand and twenty-five thousand. About that time school was out, and The Star thought that now the little people would be so busy with their play that they would not remember Old Mother Nature's children, and the club would cease to grow. But Old Mother Nature's children can't be forgot as long as Mr. Burgess continues to write his stories every day for The Star, and so the club grew and grew.

By August 1 (the membership had climbed over 42,000) the enthusiasm for attracting new members had waned considerably. A 1940 profile of Thornton Burgess in the Saturday Review suggests why. The cost of buttons and certificates (and postage) had far exceeded expectations and had actually put the paper in a difficult financial position.

The Kansas City Star begins the Bedtime Stories Club

 On April 20, 1914, The Kansas City Star announced the formation of a new club, "The Bedtime Stories Club." The paper had been receiving so many letters and drawings from readers (young and old) inspired by "Little Stories for Bedtime" that the time had come to create an organization. Those who had already submitted drawings would be charter members. 

The mission of the club: "to be kind to animals and birds, and feed them, and try to get other boys and girls to do the same thing." [Note that The Green Meadow Club in the People's Home Journal, a club with a similar mission, predates this club by about a year.]

The formation of this club, the announcement says, has made the little people of the Green Meadows, Green Forest, and Smiling Pool happy.

What do you suppose it is? You'd never never guess. Why, the little people you read about in Mr. Burgess's delightful Bedtime Stories in The Star have found out that their pictures are being drawn by hundreds and hundreds of little boys and girls who read The Star or have it read to them by their fathers and mothers. You know that if someone liked you well enough to draw your picture, it would make you happy. Well, the little people of the Green Meadows, the Green Forest and the Smiling Pool are a whole lot like little girls and boys, and they know that little girls and boys who draw their pictures must be their friends. And that is why they are happy, because they would like to be friends with you, but have been afraid you would hurt them. 

The founding of this club directly parallels the narrative of Farmer Brown's boy's conversion from nemesis to friend of the animals.

Of course, some of the little people were not surprised as others to learn they had friends among the little girls and boys. There was Tommy Tit the Chickadee for one dancing about and saying over and over again

"Dee, dee, dee, chickadee! I told you so! I told you so!"

You see Tommy Tit has long been a friend of Farmer Brown's boy and eats from his hand. And then there was Peter Rabbit, who remembered how Mrs. Grouse had been released from her prison under the ice by Farmer Brown's boy. And Chatterer the Red Squirrel told all over again how Farmer Brown's boy had caught him and put him in a cage and then had let him go and fed him all winter.

"You see," said Tommy Tit, "you don't need to be afraid, if you know who your friends are."

"Wouldn't it be nice, " said Peter Rabbit, "if we knew the names of those who drew the pictures. Then we would know for sure who our friends are."

The Star then lists the names and addresses of nearly two hundred young readers. And so begins the Bedtime Stories Club with an interesting and perhaps problematic premise, that membership not only showed one's own love for birds and animals but that one's love would be reciprocated by them.

Kansas City Star, April 28, 1915. The caption mentions the new contract that Thornton W. Burgess had just signed.

Thornton W. Burgess quickly (April 28) came on board to reinforce the premise. Indeed, the editors wrote, he was in a position to respond because Mother Nature had given him "the power to know the thoughts and language of the Little People."

I want you to know how tickled all my little friends of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest and the Smiling Pool are over this club. They think it is perfectly splendid. Johnny Chuck says that if he knew that every little boy and girl was a member of the Bedtime Stories Club he wouldn't ever be afraid and run away when he saw one coming because he would know that there was nothing to run away for. Peter Rabbit says it's the best idea he ever heard of and he's spending all his spare time going about lipperty-lipperty-lip, telling everybody he meets about it. Grandfather Frog says it's what he has waited and waited for and it takes a great load off his mind because he is getting old and nervous and now he won't have to watch out for sticks and stones every time a boy comes over to the Smiling Pool. Jimmy Skunk says that he never was afraid of little boys and girls because they have always seemed to be afraid of him but now he hopes to get better acquainted with them, because if they will only give him a chance he will show them that he can be just as polite as they can.

Sammy Jay says it's too good to be true. But Sammy always is suspicious and I am quite sure that right down inside he is just as pleased as the others. Best of all I've just had word from Farmer Brown's boy that he wants to join. He has found out for himself that love and kindness are all that is needed to make friends with the very shyest of Old Mother Nature's big family.

As the club continued to grow, Burgess wrote again (May 15)

Yesterday I went out to look for Peter Rabbit and Johnny Chuck to tell them how fast the number of their friends is growing. You see it makes me feel so good to know that so very many, many little folks and big folks love Old Mother Nature's children and have promised to be good to them and protect them from their enemies that I wanted to tell Peter and Johnny right away and that when they see anyone roaming with a red button on they will have nothing to be afraid of. But neither was at home and so I am going again the very first time I get a chance.

This makes it explicit--that the animals will be able to recognize the kind children by their badge of membership and then reciprocate their kindness. By means of this fantasy, the world of the story and the world of actually existing forests and meadows converge.

This is shown in sharpest relief via the character of Farmer Brown's boy, a child just like club members, who has seen dramatically the benefits of kindness. On May 27, Burgess had him write for membership.

Bedtime Stories Club Editor. Please may I join the Bedtime Stories Club? I want one of those red buttons to wear all the time. You see I've learned a whole lot in the last two years and the best thing of all is that there is a whole lot more fun in making friends with Old Mother Nature's children than in hunting them and trying to frighten them the way I used to.  I've made friends with a lot of them already, and I want to make friends with all of them.  Tommy Tit the Chickadee will eat out my hand. Peter Rabbit doesn't run away as he used to. Mrs. Grouse is still a little shy, but I think she knows that I am the best friend she has. Chatterer the Red Squirrel comes and takes things right out of my pocket. The last time I was over to the Smiling Pool old Grandfather Frog didn't budge from his big green lily-pad. He just said "Chugarum" which I suppose was his way of saying "good morning."

I've put away all my traps, and I'm never going to get them out again, not even if Unc' Billy Possum does come snooping around my henhouse after eggs. I suppose he thinks he has just as much right to them as I have, and I guess maybe he is right. I know Jimmy Skunk thinks so. Jimmy and I are getting to be pretty good friends. I hope all the rest of the club members will get as much fun out of making friends with the little people of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows as I am having and I think the club idea is simply great. Please send me a button and certificate right away by the next mail. FARMER BROWN'S BOY

(In fact, Farmer Brown's boy would bring his traps out one more time in October, in an attempt to catch Old Man Coyote, but he would immediately regret it.)

By June 10, children in the real world were apparently already disappointed that the fantasized reciprocal friendship with all animals had not yet materialized.  Burgess wrote again, urging patience and practical action.

Dear Fellow Club Members:
Grandfather Frog is getting so excited over the way this club has grown that the other day, when I visited the Smiling Pool, he raised right up on his toes as soon as he saw me: "Chugarum!" said he, and I knew by the sound of his voice that he was very much excited. "Chugarum!" Is all this I hear about that Bedtime Stories Club true? If it is, it's the biggest thing I ever heard of. You know, red always did excite me, and now when I see it in a button I get twice as excited as I ever did before. Do you know there are many little people around here who don't know how to behave now? It's a fact. You see, they want to be friends with all boys and girls, and since they have heard about the club they know they can be friends with the club members. But they're been afraid so long that they don't quite dare let anyone get very close now for fear they may not be a club member. I guess you'll have to tell the boys and girls how it is and ask them to please be patient."

Of course, we'll be patient. That is one of the first lessons we learn from Old Mother Nature. I want all of you to know how delighted I am with the good work being done for my dear little friends in fur and feathers. I have noticed that many of you have remembered that it is not always easy for little birds to get drinking water when they need it, and so you have put it out for them. That is just splendid. See that it is fresh every day, and if possible, put it where pussy will not be able to creep up on the little drinkers. Now is the time when the baby birds begin to try their little wings, and so are in greatest danger. Please watch out for them, and when you see any down on the ground put them up in a safe place out of reach of cats.

Peter Rabbit sends love to all of you and Jimmy Skunk wants me to tell you that he is all ready to make friends with anyone wearing a red button.

Yours for the greatest club in the world. THORNTON W. BURGESS

While the idea that animals will suddenly become "friends" is unrealistic, it is true that birds will be attracted (and thus be more approachable) if you put out drinking water. Likewise, someone with the confidence (granted by a button?) to calmly let a skunk approach, will probably be  rewarded with something akin to friendliness.

Next: The Bedtime Stories Club grows and grows and grows

Three more years (at least) of the GREATEST NEWSPAPER FEATURE

On April 26, 1914, the Boston Daily Globe ran an ad assuring subscribers that "Little Stories for Bedtime" had been renewed for three more years. Thornton W. Burgess had just signed a new contract (technically with Associated Newspapers, not the Globe itself). This was an era when perpetual renewal (as in our contemporary newspaper comics) was not assumed so three more years of Burgess was a big deal.

We've already looked at the hype from 1913, but it is useful to note that the hype is stepped up a notch in this ad. Burgess is not just the favorite of children, his feature is "THE GREATEST NEWSPAPER FEATURE now running in any paper." Adults, too, are committed readers in search of their daily fix. They too, will be hooked, if they start reading, the Globe suggests.

And this would be good for Globe subscription numbers.

Next: The Kansas City Star unveils the first Bedtime Stories Club

Little Stories for Bedtime 1914

 

The Stories

Illustration for "Chatterer the Red Squirrel grows too curious" (January 20, 1914)

January 1 to February 9. Sammy Jay extorts (with threat of weasel) Chatterer the Red Squirrel in order to get corn from the corn crib. After subverting the jay's plan, Chatterer gets careless and gets caught in Farmer Brown boy's box trap. Farmer Brown's boy keeps him as a pet and gradually they become friends, even after Chatterer is released. This episode reprinted in The Adventures of Sammy Jay and The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel.

Illustration for "What Peter Rabbit found" (February 12, 1914)

February 10 to February 14. Peter Rabbit visits Paddy the Beaver's lodge. Peter and Paddy disagree (to themselves) about the best way to spend the winter.

Illustration for "Peter Rabbit's Valentines" (February 16, 1914).

February 16. Peter Rabbit makes valentine hearts in the snow.

Illustration for "What Farmer Brown's boy did to Granny Fox " (February 19, 1914)

February 17 to February 21. Farmer Brown's boy catches Granny Fox taking a nap but decides not to shoot her. Reddy Fox makes fun of Granny for getting caught; she beats him for his impudence.

Illustration for "Mrs. Grouse is once more a prisoner" (February 28, 1914)

February 23 to March 6. Mrs. Grouse is caught under crust after ice storm. Peter Rabbit brings Farmer Brown's boy to rescue her. He takes her home to nurse. The animals debate whether Farmer Brown's boy is friend or foe.

Illustration for "Everybody teases Peter Rabbit" (March 10, 1914)

March  7 to March 12. Peter Rabbit finds a strange large track. Other animals don't believe him.

Illustration for "The Herald of Mistress Spring" (March 17, 1914)

March 13 to March 25. Peter Rabbit looks for signs of spring. Winsome Bluebird arrives and the winter sleepers wake up.

Illustration for "Old Mr. Toad's Mistake" (March 27, 1914)

March 26 to March 28. Jimmy Skunk protects Old Mr. Toad from Mr. Blacksnake.

Illustration for "Sammy Jay and Blacky the Crow both talk at once" (April 3, 1914)

March 30 to April 11. Other animals begin to get glimpses of a stranger in black. Jumper the hare reveals its identity: Buster Bear.

Illustration for "Easter on the Green Meadows" (April 13, 1914)

April 13. Easter episode. Posted in full here.

Illustration for "Farmer Brown's Boy and Buster Meet" (June 10, 1914)

April 14 to June 13. Buster Bear is formally introduced to Green Forest community. (Much of this long multi-part episode is printed in The Adventures of Buster Bear, some in The Adventures of Old Mr. Toad).  Buster helps Jumper the Hare fix his problem with Reddy Fox. Everyone searches for honey (so that Buster will be their friend), including Peter Rabbit. Peter Rabbit finds honey but needs to be rescued from a team of predators by Buster. Mr. Toad gets puffed up with pride when he is invited to dine with Buster (and needs to be taught a lesson). Buster and Little Joe Otter compete for fish, and Buster becomes a short-lived hero when he frightens Farmer Brown's boy. He loses his status when he shows himself to be equally afraid of Farmer Brown's boy.

Illustration for "How Little Mite was saved" (July 20, 1914)

June 15 to July 25. Danny Meadow Mouse finds a mate (Nanny) and starts a family. They have four children, one of whom ("Little Mite") runs away.  He has several adventures before being (inadvertently) returned to his nest by Farmer Brown's boy.

Illustration for "What became of Mr. Blacksnake's old suit." (August 4, 1914)

July 27 to August 8. Mr. Blacksnake tries to eat Drummer the Woodpecker's babies but is stopped by Farmer Brown's boy. Farmer Brown's boy is about to kill him but shows mercy. Mr. Blacksnake sheds his skin; his new skin is used in Cresty the Flycatcher's nest. The snakeskin scares off Chatterer the Red Squirrel, who was planning to raid nest, as well as Sammy Jay, who was set up by Stickytoes the Tree Frog.

Illustration for "Old Man Coyote loses his appetite" (August 31, 1914)

August 10 to September 1. The animal community is scared by stranger without head or legs that rolls after them. Once it's discovered to be Prickly Porky, tricks are played on Reddy Fox, Granny Fox, and Old Man Coyote. Buster Bear finally gives away the joke.

Illustration for "Buster Bear tails pail of Farmer Brown's boy" (September 10, 1914)

September 2 to September 14. Buster Bear and Farmer Brown's boy go blueberry picking at the same time. Humorous situations ensue. (Reprinted in The Adventures of Buster Bear.)

Illustration for "Fight for a home" (September 22, 1914)

September 15 to October 6. Bully the English (House) sparrow and his wife arrive at the Old Orchard and have conflicts with the resident birds. They only leave when Farmer Brown's boy intervenes.

Illustration for "Old Man Coyote goes on with his story" (November 3, 1914)

October 7 to November 12. Old Man Coyote takes one of Farmer Brown's boy's ducks. Farmer Brown's boy sets a trap for the coyote. After Bowser the Hound gets caught instead, Farmer Brown's boy swears off steel traps forever.  Meanwhile we learn that Old Man Coyote is a zoo escapee.

Illustration for "Peter Rabbit learns from Striped Chipmunk" (November 16, 1914)

November 13 to November 25. Peter Rabbit is inspired by nut-collecting squirrels to see if he too can work hard during the fall. After a misadventure he decides to apply himself to cutting paths in bramble tangle instead. Peter is tickled that other folks are either busy or sleepy in preparation for winter.

Illustration for "Peter Rabbit's Thanksgiving" (November 26, 1914)

November 26. Peter Rabbit pauses to be thankful.

Illustration for "Buster Bear and the hunter" (December 24, 1914)

November 27 to December 24.  A series of hunting stories. In the first Farmer Brown's boy subverts his friends' efforts to shoot Bobby Coon. In the second, Jumper the Hare and Mrs. Grouse work together to escape a hunter. In the third and longest story, Buster Bear comes to the rescue of Peter Rabbit (and a hunter learns how it feels to be hunted).

Illustration for "How Christmas came to the Green Forest" (December 26, 1914)

December 26. A special Christmas story. Farmer Brown's boy leaves food for the orchard, forest and meadow folk.

Illustration for "What was Farmer Brown's boy doing?" (December 29, 1914)

December 27-30. Farmer Brown's boy posts no hunting signs on his family's property.

Illustration for "Roughleg the Hawk arrives" (December 31, 1914)

December 31. Danny Meadow Mouse avoids detection by Roughleg the Hawk.

Notes

1914 featured fewer classic "Adventures of..." stories than the previous two years but introduced one of readers' most favorite Burgess character, Buster Bear. Farmer Brown's boy, now the animals' friend, also has a more prominent role, appearing in about half of the major storylines in 1914 overall.  It was Danny Meadow Mouse's turn to have a family (and an adventure-seeking child).

Burgess continued his growing emphasis on nature fact and became more explicit about his anti-hunting/trapping position.  He rationalized Old Man Coyote's presence in Massachusetts (still unlikely in 1914) by making him an escapee from a zoo.

Burgess ran a long humorous episode around the premise that porcupines can curl themselves into balls and roll down hills. This is an old myth that Burgess likely repeated from William J. Long. John Burroughs famously called Long out on this porcupine story in particular in his famous critique of what would be called "Nature Fakers." Yes, in this story, Thornton Burgess was a nature faker. 

In 1914 Burgess continued to pay attention to the seasons (Peter Rabbit's search for signs of spring and the work of winter preparation) but also began to watch the calendar. There were special stories for Valentine's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. And he began to highlight the "sad times" of autumn hunting season.

Farmer Brown's Boy

1914 was the year of Farmer Brown's boy's conversion from nemesis to savior. (This conversion is discussed more fully here).  He made friends with Chatterer the Red Squirrel, rescued Mrs. Grouse and Stickytoes the Treefrog's son, showed mercy towards Granny Fox, Mr. Blacksnake, Mr. Gartersnake, Danny Meadowmouse (and son) and Old Man Coyote, and he intervened to remove house sparrows from the Old Orchard and to save Bobby Coon from hunters. Not all animals, particularly Sammy Jay, are convinced of the conversion, especially when Farmer Brown's boy uses ruthless steel traps to try to catch Old Man Coyote. But when at the end of the year he leaves Christmas presents of food for the animals and posts no hunting signs on his family's property, there's no longer a question of where he stands.

Next: Three more years of the GREATEST NEWSPAPER FEATURE

Burgess responds to his readers

July 25, 1913 featured a very special letter to The Star about "Little Stories for Bedtime." Reproduced in neat school-boy handwriting, complete with hand-drawn illustration, the letter humbly requested that the stories be collected into books.

Dear Mr. Nelson
I am a little over ten years old but I read the Bed-time Stories every night. I began reading them about the first of February. I saved them from the fourth of March, the beginning of the "Sammy Jay" Stories.

I am so interested in them that I would like to know something about Thornton W. Burgess, the author: whether he is married and has any children or not I want to know. Also, if you couldn't print the Bed-time Stories in book-form...I want the Bed time Stories printed this way because I have only saved those from March fourth until now and I would like to have the Bed-time Stories before this time,
Yours truly,
Victor Wellington Peters

The editor responds:

Master Victor Wellington Peters is only one of very, very many of the little readers of The Star who have written to ask about the man who writes the "Little Stories for Bedtime." And there have been not a few grownups in the list, as well, so The Star has decided to tell all it knows about the Green Meadows and Green Forest reporter, and then it will let Mr. Burgess himself tell how he came to write the "Bedtime Stories."

Many little folks have asked where the Green Meadows and the Green Forest could be found. A boy whose home is down in the Ozarks in Southern Mississippi was certain he had discovered them near his home. And at that he was about right. For you see, children, there is a Green Meadow and a Green Forest not so very far from any of our homes, and all the little folks Mr. Burgess writes about can be found there if you will only look for them.

But the meadow and the forest to which Mr. Burgess goes for his stories are on Cape Cod,  in Massachusetts, where he was born in 1874. As a boy he loved the out of doors and the birds and the wild animals, and studied them, never thinking that some day he would be writing stories about them for thousands of others to read. After he grew up he tried to be a bookkeeper, but his head was full of stories that got in the way of the long columns of figures, so he quit his place and became a newspaper man. And how he finally found his life work he will tell you himself. And maybe you'll have an opportunity to see him, for he is going to make a lecture tour and tell stories for the benefit of children. Also, and this answers a question lots and lots of little folks and their mothers and fathers have asked The Star, the "Bedtime Stories" are going to be put in book form. One book will be called "The Adventures of Reddy Fox" and the other "The Adventures of Johnny Chuck." He already has published such books as "Old Mother Wind" (sic), "Mother West Wind's Children," and "Mother West Wind's Animal Friends." He writes Boy Scout stories, too, such as "The Boy Scouts of Woodcraft Camp."

Oh yes. So many persons want to know if Mr. Burgess is married and if he has any children. His wife is the person who sees the "Bedtime Stories" before any of us do, and the youngest of his three children is the one for whom the first of the stories was written, but we'll let Mr. Burgess tell about that himself.

He also includes an image (based on TWB's widely circulated publicity photo) captioned, "Thornton W. Burgess writing a bedtime story."

Then Burgess tells his own tales about the origins of the Bedtime Stories. This origin myth is something we've seen before, but this is the earliest draft I know and it differs in some important details from the story he would tell later on.

How I Came to Write the Bedtime Stories
By Thornton W. Burgess

The editor of your paper has written to me asking me to tell you how I came to write the "Little Stories for Bedtime" which he is good enough to print every night. Perhaps you have guessed that they were first written for someone in particular. They were--for a little blue-eyed boy who had gone away for a visit, leaving daddy very lonely, especially at story telling time, just before the sandman came.

It was the night after he left that Old Mother West Wind slipped in at my window and whispered a story about Johnny Chuck and the Green Meadows. Of course I reached for my pen and wrote it just as she told it to me, and gave it that very night to Uncle Sam to take to the little boy who had gone visiting. Every night after that Old Mother West Wind would whisper a story while I wrote it down and every day Uncle Sam would take one of these stories in his mail to be read at bedtime to the little boy and the two little cousins whom he was visiting.

When he got back home again he wanted more stories and the two little cousins he had been visiting wanted more stories. Then the editor of a magazine who had seen some of them was sure that his little boy and girl readers wanted them too. So then there was nothing for me to do but to go down on the Green Meadows and beg Old Mother West Wind and Grandfather Frog and Johnny Chuck and Peter Rabbit and the other little people who live there for more stories.

Then the editor of your newspaper wanted a story every night for you and when I found that the little meadow and forest people were sure that they had no end of stories for me I promised to write one every day. So now instead of writing stories for one particular boy alone I write for him and for you. And every night as his mother reads the Bedtime Story to him I like to think that in other homes all over this big land of ours are other little boys, and little girls, too, who perhaps are also learning to love the little meadow and forest people. You see, I love them dearly myself, and I want everybody else to love them, particularly little boys and girls. Then when they grow up they will know what lots of grown people do not know today--that the little wild people of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest really want to be their friends and that many of them are really working the best they know how to help us. I don't believe that they would be hunted and frightened so much if everyone knew that, do you?

Johnny Chuck has his home not very far from mine, and Happy Jack Squirrel visits my yard almost every day. Sammy Jay is a good deal of a rascal and I wish he wouldn't wake me so early in the morning, but I like him in spite of his bad habits. Jimmy Skunk says that people don't understand him, and that if they did they wouldn't be afraid of him, because he always minds his own business and really does a great deal of good. He doesn't see why hens shouldn't lay eggs for him as well as for other people and doesn't see why he should be blamed for helping himself when people put temptation in his way by leaving their henhouses open. Nobody is altogether proof against temptation, especially when they don't see anything wrong in what they are doing.

But I started out to tell you how I came to write the Bedtime Stories, and here I am writing about my little animal friends. You see, I think about them so much that every time I take my pen up it seems as if I just had to write about them. I have had lots of the nicest letters from little boys and girls all over the country, and you have no idea how much pleasure these letters give me. They make me feel acquainted. So now, while I still write the stories for one particular little boy, I feel that I am also writing them quite as much for hundreds of other little friends, and you can't think how good it is to feel that so many are really enjoying the little stories I like so well to tell.

This is much more mythological in form than future versions, with Old Mother West Wind acting as muse and Burgess himself going to the holy site of the Green Meadows to beg for more stories. The cousins would be dropped from future versions to highlight the more intimate one-to-one connection between father and son. Note that Burgess, even at this early point, has the welfare of actual animals in mind.

As one might expect, this profile itself received letters from readers. Here is one, dated July 31.

To the Star: My little brother and I have read the bedtime stories for a long time and have not missed a one of them unless we could not help it and now we just got through reading about the man who writes the bedtime stories, Thornton W. Burgess. We saw his picture in The Star when he was writing a bedtime story.

I am 11 years old and my brother James is 6. Almost every day we see most all of the little forest and meadow folks, but they do not know when we are watching them that every time we get The Star we are so anxious to read about them.

We think the writer is so sweet faced and kind looking. We are so glad that the little blue eyed boy left his daddy and that Mother West Wind slipped in at our bedtime story man's window and told him about the bed time stories. We are also glad that The Star was kind enough to publish them.
BLANCHE and JAMES LEDMAN, Alma , Mo.

Next: Little Stories for Bedtime 1914

1913 Letters to the Kansas City Star

 One way to gauge the reception of "Little Stories for Bedtime" in 1913 is to look at letters readers wrote to newspapers carrying the feature. The Kansas City Star offers a nice sample of reader responses showing high levels of engagement and a wide range of age of readership.

May 8
To The Star: I like to read the Bedtime Stories. I want to know where Farmer Brown lives, so I can go and see "Uncle Billy" Possum and Johnny Chuck's lost baby. I believe they must be cute. Aunt Alice says she will take me to see them, if it's not too far away. Please let me know soon for I am fond of all kinds of pets.
MINNIE L. THOMAS, Garnett, Kas. 

May 17
To The Star: I am a little boy 7 years old. I have been reading the Bedtime Stories for a long time, but I can't see why Farmer Brown's boy gathers his eggs in the morning. If he would gather his eggs in the evening, as most people do, I think Uncle Billy Possum and the rest of the little meadow people would not have such a feast. ROLLIE BORGSTADT, ALMA, MO.

May 24
Thornton Burgess, care The Star:
You may be interested to know that one of the delighted, wide-eyed hearers of your "Bedtime Stories" has offered a novel explanation of the trouble with the "Smiling Pool." Its value lies in the fact that it came from a boy who is only 2 1/2 years old, and who apparently misses many of the best points in your stories.

Last night he asked me what was the matter at the "Smiling Pool," and I replied that I thought the water had run out of it. In a minute he said: "Tork tame out of it." (The cork came out of it.) A little later when I repeated his remark to his mother he made this assertion: "I fink Peter Wabbit took da tork out and wun 'way wif it."

Being the father of this small boy and having to read these stories to him every day immediately upon the arrival of the paper, I believe he is right in pointing the finger of suspicion at "Peter Rabbit." Yours very truly, PROUD FATHER

May 27
Dear Star: I have been for some time very much interested in the doings of the little wood-folk in the Green Forest and around the Smiling Pool. Forty or more years ago I could have seen Farmer Brown's boy any day, by looking in a looking glass.

My three boys are grown up and gone, but the little stories come before Europe's war news, or even the Bull Moose happenings, so dear to us. Yes, I might even say they compete in interest with the narrative of the standpatters coming to the mourning bench.
56 YEARS YOUNG, Vinita OK

October 8
To The Star: I am a little girl 8 years old with big blue eyes and long flaxen hair. I have three brothers and one sister and we just race to get The Star to read the Bedtime Stories. I send ...Mr. Burgess ... a great big hug and kiss....
MARY MATHEWS, BAYMORE, Mo.

Even the header used above the daily story was the subject of discussion. Apparently it was modified at some point in late April or early May [I've not been able to find the modified version]

May 7
To The Star: I see we have a new little girl to head, "The Bed Time Stories." I wonder why? Surely they did not think, down at The Star office that we were tired of our little girl. Why, we had grown to be such friends, over our nightly reading of the adventures of Peter Rabbit and Johnny Chuck and all the rest of the little folk of the Green Forest and Green Meadows, that I miss her more than I can say. Please Mr. Editor, or Mr. Burgess (if you have taken our little girl away), can't we have her back? 
48 YEARS YOUNG



The Editor replies:

The appeal of "48-Years-Young," seconded as it was by many others, already has been complied with. The little girl who so long presided over the Bed Time Stories has been restored to her place.

Indeed for some the header image was a clear model to be emulated

Here is the caption to this image

If you have passed the Shukert Building, between Eleventh and Twelfth streets on Grand Avenue recently and seen this picture in the display window of Cornish & Baker, photographers, you probably have said: "There is the original of the picture at the head of The Star's 'Bedtime Story.' " The resemblance is so marked that it is impossible not to see they are companion pictures. However, the sequence is the other way around, the cut head of the "Bedtime Story" having been the model for the photograph. The portrait reproduced here is that of Mrs. E.C. Hersh of 236 Linwood Avenue and her daughter, Hortense. Little Hortense is a great admirer of Mr. Burgess's stories and when she and her mother went recently to have their picture taken she was enthusiastic about the suggestion of Mr. Baker that she and her mother pose as the now familiar little girl and her mother readers of The Star know so well because of "Lambdin's" drawing.

Next: Thornton Burgess responds to his readers

Unusual! Unsurpassable! Unrivalled! Unique!

Ad in Boston Daily Globe for Little Stories for Bedtime (Feb 9, 1913)

The Boston Daily Globe was, among its partners in Associated Newspapers, a relatively late adopter of "Little Stories for Bedtime," not running it consistently 6 days-a-week until February 1913. But look at the amount of hype displayed when they finally picked it up!

Burgess's stories are "the most popular stories published for children."

Burgess is "one of the masters of the English language." His characters are comparable to those of Aesop and Uncle Remus (Joel Chandler Harris).

Note as well the claim of New England exclusivity (it wouldn't last) and the fact that the series now was perceived to have enough value to sell subscriptions to the Globe itself.