Barbara Newhall Follett

Biography

Barbara Newhall Follett (1914–1939) was an American child prodigy and author who published her first novel at age twelve. The House Without Windows (1927), written when she was nine and rewritten after a house fire destroyed the original manuscript, received enthusiastic reviews and established her as a literary sensation. Her second novel, The Voyage of the Norman D. (1928), was published when she was fourteen. Follett's writing career stalled as family troubles mounted—her parents' divorce, financial difficulties, and her father's emotional distance. She disappeared in December 1939 at age twenty-five and was never found, leaving one of American literature's most haunting mysteries.