The Webster Society recognizes individuals and businesses who support the future of the library with minimum unrestricted donations of $1,250 per year to the Union Vale Library Fund, Inc. These donors will take up the mission of ensuring a solid base of support for continual improvement of our library for non-recurring expenses such as: initial renovation costs of the Tymor Barn, furnishings, systems and expertise, technical equipment, start-up costs for special programming and subsequent renovations to increase capacity and maximize space. Your gifts will permit us to transform a simple barn into an anchor for our community that provides opportunity for generations to come.

 

The Webster Society is named in honor of Alice Jane (Jean) Webster (1876-1916), the mother of Tymor Park's benefactor, Jean Webster McKinney Connor.

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American writer, Jean Webster was born in Fredonia, NY to parents Charles Webster and Annie Moffett. Her first novel, When Patty Went to College (1903) was a humorous look at a girl’s many escapades as a senior in an all-girl’s college and became a big hit at the time. She was best known however, for her popular WWI romance novels, Daddy-Long-Legs (1912) and Dear Enemy (1915). The multiple stage and film adaptations along with the multiple printings of Daddy-Long-Legs made Jean Webster one of the highest paid women writers in the United States. When Jean Webster married lawyer Glenn Ford McKinney they initially lived in an apartment overlooking Central Park but soon decided to make Tymor Farm in Union Vale their home.

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In Storyteller, by Alan and Mary Simpson with Ralph Connor, Jean Webster is introduced as follows:

 

“Jean Webster came from a family of writers. She was the great-niece of Mark Twain and a daughter of Charles Webster, the publisher. She roomed with the poet, Adelaide Crapsey at Vassar College and won a reputation for herself as a “shark at English”. While she was a student she wrote a column of chatty news every week for the Poughkeepsie Sunday Courier, in return for which she was paid three dollars, at a time when a Vassar student could buy a broiled lobster at Smith Brothers for thirty-five cents.......Several times in her short life she struck a vein of sentiment and humor that endeared her to all sorts of people and gave her a kind of kinship with the great charmers of literature, the creators of wonderful, lovable, funny, people like the author of Huckleberry Finn himself. This little vein of pure gold, together with an innocence of heart, and a sunniness of temper.... was the secret of her appeal.”

 

Jean Webster’s love of Tymor Farm and affection for the countryside, her devotion to education, writing and children, among her many other interests, make Jean Webster the shining light of inspiration for the Union Vale Library and its mission.

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The Union Vale Public Library is pleased to include in the Webster Society individuals who provide support as follows:

• Columnist ($1,250 – $2,499)

• Novelist ($2,500 – $4,999)

• Playwright ($5,000 – $9,999)

• Scriptwriter ($10,000 – $24,999)

• Storyteller ($25,000 and above)

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Webster Society members are invited to literary and special library events such as the Annual Gala. Most importantly, Webster Society members will have the benefit of knowing that they are supporting the library to help ensure its future growth and success as a valued community center.