For those who love reading novels, it became an exciting part of their life. Novels have stories, mysteries, twists, and too many fascinating things. We had seen mysteries in novels, but there is a Novelist whose disappearance became a mystery itself, and she is Barbara Newhall Follett.

Who is Barbara Newhall Follett?

Barbara Newhall Follett was an American child prodigy novelist, born on 4 March 1914, in Hanover, New Hampshire. She was the daughter of Wilson Follett, a literary editor, critic, and university lecturer, and Helen Thomas Follett, children’s writer. She had an elder sister named Grace and a younger sister Sabra Follett, who later became the first woman to graduate from Princeton University in 1961. Her mother schooled her at home, and at an early age, Barbara shows her interest in reading and writing. She started writing her poetry by the age of four. Since she was young, she is an intelligent and imaginative girl.

Career:

She has a small typewriter. She began writing The Adventures of Eeperesip, later titled “The house without windows,” in 1923 when she was only nine years old. Barbara wrote this as a present for her mother. It was the story of a girl Eeperesip, who live happily with nature and animal friends, and ran away from home. But her manuscript burned in a house fire. Later she again wrote the whole story. Her father is an editor in the Knopf publishing house and supervised Barbara’s novel publication in 1927. With her father’s guidance, the novel was published and praised by The New York Times, The Saturday Review, and HL Mencken.

Because of her early success, some people hailed her as a child genius. Her next novel was based on her real-life experience on a Coastal schooner, Nova Scotia, and named “The Voyage of the Norman D.”

The novel was published in 1928, one year after the publication of her first novel, and received critical acclaim. That year she suffered some family problems. Her father became unfaithful towards her mother leaves her mother for another woman. This event was like a tragic blow in the life as she was closely attached to her father.

At the age of 14, she was at the peak of her career. Her family has to suffer many problems at that time. During the period of the Great Depression, Barbara was 16 years old. In New York Times, she works as a secretary at that time.

Marriage, depression, and disappearance:

Follett met Nickerson Rogers in the summer of 1931. After three years of togetherness, the couple tied in a knot in July 1934. They settled in Brookline. Barbara still wrote at that time, but her work is no longer in favor of publishers. Initially, she was happy in her married life, but by 1937 she had started expressing dissatisfaction from her marriage. In letters to her friends, Follett wrote about her restlessness. Soon she came to believe that her husband was unfaithful towards her and became depressed.

Suspicious disappearance:

According to Rogers, on 7 December 1937, she left the apartment after quarreling with her husband and was never seen again.

Till two weeks after her disappearance, Roger did not report an FIR of a missing person. When asked, he answered that he was waiting for Follett to return.

After 35 years of Follett’s disappearance, her mother claimed that the police did not investigate fairly. Follett’s mother was also doubtful about Rogers’ role in her daughter’s disappearance.

Follett’s body was never found, and the conditions of her disappearance are not clear till now.

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