Jean Webster was a grandniece of Mark Twain, and it shows. "Daddy Long Legs" is her best-known book, published in 1911. It is an epistolary novel and a profound and tender homage to the power of awakening love.
Jerusha (Judy) Abbot is 18, and has outgrown the orphanage in which she grew up. Her carers aren't sure what to do with her; Judy's too smart to be wasted on Household School, but there's just no money to pay for college. That is, until a rich trustee reads an essay written by Judy, and it makes him laugh. He offers to send her to college to become a writer, on the condition that she writes him regular letters to keep him up to date with events.
There's just one problem, Judy has no idea whom her generous benefactor actually is. Three things she knows: he is rich, he is tall and he dislikes girls.
He never answers any of her letters - but seems somehow always to be present in her life...
This extremely funny Cinderella story follows Judy through her college years, as she tries to fit in with her rich friends...and their handsome uncles (who somehow seem very familiar). The story is told through her letters to 'Dear Daddy Long Legs'.