The Strange Little Girl (1911)

When I was paging through issues of The Lotus-Circle Messenger, a children's theosophical magazine which began in 1930 and was renamed in 1936 as The Junior Theosophist and Lotus-Circle Messenger, I was intrigued to see this advertisement in the December 1932 issue:

The first book listed, The Coming of the King (1901), was written and illustrated by Reginald Machell (1854-1927), a friend and collaborator with Morris. Machell was an early resident at the Point Loma community, and had lived there for several years before Morris arrived in January 1908.

The fourth title especially interested me, as it claims to be a short book by Kenneth Morris entitled The Strange Little Girl. But researching this later, I learned that it was not published with Morris's name on it, but merely with the byline "V.M." Is the story by Morris, or did someone who made the advertisement confuse Morris's initials (K.V.M.) with those of someone else? That appears to be the case, for The Strange Little Girl, published in 1911, seemed to have been written by Vredenburgh Minot.

Minot (1887-1928) was from a notable Boston family. His maternal aunt was Dr. Gertrude van Pelt (1856-1947), a physician and a high-level theosophist in the Point Loma Community. Both Vredenburgh's parents were dead by 1900, and in 1905 he spent several weeks visiting his aunt before going to study at Harvard University. Minot was part of the Harvard Class of 1909, but according to the history of that Class, Minot withdrew during or at the end of his junior year.  He settled in Point Loma, and quickly became involved in many activities there. He studied at the Raja-Yoga Academy, where his instructor in literature and history was Kenneth Morris.

Vredenbugh Minot married Hazel Oettl (1889-1969) in December 1917. Minot contributed to The Theosophical Path and The Raja-Yoga Messenger, and was on the editorial staff of the latter at the time of his death, from complications of a heavy attack of influenza, in December 1928.  The Theosophical Path for February 1929 devoted five pages to his memory, including testimonials from colleagues and friends. Kenneth Morris contributed a verse valedictory that was read out at the services and printed in the magazine. Oddly, though, there is no mention at all of the publication of The Strange Little Girl, which was apparently his only book. 

And what of the book itself?  It is a fairy tale, at the beginning, of a young princess named Eline,and it quickly moves on with an allegorical progression of her soul as it gains knowledge and influence.  An interesting tale, in some ways like some by Kenneth Morris, but it also shares a lot of traits with other theosophical fiction of the time period. You can read a copy here.