description Dear Enemy Overview
Dear Enemy is a 1915 epistolary novel by American writer Jean Webster and a sequel to Daddy-Long-Legs. It is presented through letters written by Sallie McBride as she takes responsibility for managing an orphan asylum. The novel combines social observations about institutional childcare with comedy, personal correspondence, and a developing romantic storyline.
help Dear Enemy FAQ
Is Dear Enemy a sequel?
Yes, it is Jean Webster's 1915 follow-up to her bestselling epistolary novel Daddy-Long-Legs from 1912. Both books tell their stories entirely through letters.
Who writes the letters in Dear Enemy?
Sallie McBride, the irreverent classmate of Daddy-Long-Legs heroine Judy Abbott, writes them after taking charge of the John Grier Home orphan asylum. Her letters go to Judy, to suitor Gordon Hallock, and to the orphanage doctor Robin MacRae, whom she addresses as 'Dear Enemy.'
What does Dear Enemy say about orphanage conditions?
The novel is a progressive-era critique of institutional child care, detailing reforms in diet, discipline, and education at the John Grier Home. It reflects the early-20th-century American debate over caring for dependent children.
Was Dear Enemy Jean Webster's last novel?
It was among her final works — Webster died in 1916, the year after its publication. Dear Enemy remains one of the last expressions of her witty, reform-minded fiction.
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