The Reader
Jan Karon was a reader long before she became a writer, and her passion for the activity is evident throughout the archive. Her creative work includes reading — and often replying to — online posts, cards and letters from fans. Karon is definitely invested in learning how readers respond to her work. Dickens, for example, was known to shape the next installment of a serially published novel in response to reader feedback, and Karon is not completely different. Extensive files of reader mail and other testimonials take pride of place in her archive: more than six linear feet worth, selected for safekeeping over the years.
While some readers approach these books as they would any other work of fiction, the archive reveals that many experience the act of reading Karon’s work as a form of meditation and a source of consolation. Within the world of Mitford, Karon makes space for reflections on faith and grief, trauma and resilience. Letter after letter cites the “Mitford” series as a sustaining help through major life crises. Karon, her audience attests, has created not just a fiction but an environment in which readers see their troubles reflected and tended with a care often difficult to find in real life.
Jan Karon’s childhood copy of “The Pocket Book of Robert Frost’s Poems”
A Childhood Awakening
Jan Karon was a reader from an early age, and this copy of the poems of Robert Frost represents a moment of transformation in her childhood. Her grandmother gave it to her when Jan was just ten years old. Karon recalls that “my darling grandmother, who was a very smart woman, was doing farm work when she otherwise might have been introducing herself to poetry. She didn’t know Robert Frost from a hole in the ground.” But she knew it was something that Jan should have, so she bought it with 15 cents from her egg money. Karon recalls reading Robert Frost for the very first time in this volume. She saw that there could be poems that didn’t rhyme, and characters speaking in dialect, and suddenly understood, in a way that stayed with her the rest of her life, what writing could do.
Jan Karon’s file copy of a letter she wrote to Jeanne Drewson, who would become her first agent, followed by Karon’s notes on a followup phone call (Box 49.2)
An Eye For a Good Critique
Karon’s files show her seeking out advice and criticism from every quarter as she developed Mitford. Here, we see her “selling” her concept forcefully to Jeanne Drewson, and just as energetically attending to and acting upon Drewson’s recommendations.
Readers Writing
Shown here are two examples of the thousands of pieces of mail that Karon has received from readers over the decades. The first, carefully filed by Karon as the first piece of reader mail she received, gives us a glimpse of how Mitford was first experienced by readers upon publication. The second letter is exemplary of the spiritual relationship many readers have with the novels. The writer reminds Karon that she first wrote her several years earlier, at a time when reading Karon’s books brought her solace while she struggled with a wayward child. Now, she shares that the books have become a place of sanctuary for a suffering friend:
I have a friend whose husband just died of Alzheimer’s, and she has been as blessed as we were to be able to go to Mitford after we got her started and constantly reminds me what a gift it was at that very draining time. God has used you as that gift in so many lives.
The first piece of Mitford reader fan mail, 25 June 1994 (Box 27.2), and a letter from reader Peggy Reed, 2 November 2006 (Box 42)
Crossing Over to Secular Readers
This remarkable letter is one of many Karon has received from booksellers over the years. After informing Karon of her correspondence with Lion Books about restocking “At Home in Mitford” after robust sales to “a wide audience”, the owner of the Evergreen Scripture Bookstore shares a personal story:
On a personal note, I sent a copy of the book to my father for Christmas. My father is not a Christian but I thought that he would enjoy the book. I cannot tell you the emotions that I felt when he told me that he enjoyed it so much that he passed it along to my grandmother…. Thank you Jan. There are few books that we sell here that I feel comfortable about sharing with my family.
A fax from Lee Whitman to Jan Karon, 27 March 1995 (Box 44.9)
A page from a reader list-serv reader wonders about possible plot directions related to KKK activities and “early 20th century racism” for the forthcoming “Home to Holly Springs” (Box 4.8).
Eavesdropping on the List-serv
Scrawled across the top of this printout from the “Jan Karon Bulletin Board” is a note in Karon’s distinctive hand: “Carol - interesting!!!” A bit further down, she notes, “File HHS [Home to Holly Springs].”
This reader has noticed a possible teaser for Karon’s next novel while reading “Light from Heaven”, and isn’t too far off: indeed, Peggy does take center stage in “Home from Holly Springs,” and racial tension is a central topic in the novel.
Karon readily admits to her voracious appetite for following the reader community online.