Daddy Long Legs published by Arechi Manga

You might have known that the author of Candy Candy, Keiko Nagita, has written the preface for the Spanish edition of Daddy Long Legs, published in February 2022 by Arechi Manga.

For your interest, you can find more info here on this page in Italian, Fay has kindly provided the translations in English, and she got the permission from the aforementioned page to share with us. Thank you so much, Fay! <3

First letter

“Dear Jerusha Abbott,

I’m sorry; let me start again.

Dearest Judy,

Forgive me for having the audacity to write to you without notice. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken the liberty of calling you Judy, but I confess that in my eyes you are a dear friend I have known since childhood. My name is Keiko Nagita and I am addressing you from distant Japan. I wrote my first novel for girls at the age of nineteen. Half a century has passed since then, and it still seems like a dream to me that I was able to devote myself uninterruptedly to that profession. Despite my long career, let me tell you that there are always surprises for which you are not prepared. I can hardly believe I was asked to write the preface for the Spanish edition of Daddy Long Legs! It’s a miracle! I was so thrilled by that news that I haven’t recovered my composure yet. Even if you don’t know it, I read that book when I was ten. It struck me so deeply that for a while I used your name, Judy, for the labels I sewed into all my clothes. I even remember asking for a red checked cotton dress to be made for me; the novel didn’t specify the color, but for me that color represented the John Grier orphanage. Don’t be angry, please. I am aware that you never liked that garment and that you don’t have fond memories of that place. However, it is also true that you were dressed like this when you attracted the attention of Daddy Long Legs who saw in you an adorable little girl who preferred that dress. I’m inclined to believe your literary talent was not the only thing that encouraged that gentleman to pay for your studies and financially support you until the end of your college career. Actually I suspect that your benefactor’s commitment to your becoming a writer was above all an excuse to receive your letters. I’m sure that every time he perceived there was something special about you. Doesn’t it seem surprising to you that something similar happened to you too when you were fascinated just by seeing the long shadow of his legs? Fate had united you without your noticing, but that didn’t prevent the golden dust that had scattered around him from fluttering like snowflakes. When I turned twenty-one, I found myself in the same situation as you. My father died when I was just eleven, my mother followed him ten years later, and I had no siblings. Oh, I ask you to forgive me. I didn’t want to compare my story with yours. I had enjoyed until then the affection of a mother and a father who had remained by my side. I was an adult when I was left alone in the world, which is very different from being an orphan child. Nevertheless, I would dare to say that I experienced the same feeling of loneliness and helplessness as you in the desert of loss. That was when I realized I had become like you, and that thought illuminated me like a ray of light that brought a smile to my face. There they were: imagination and humor, two companions I have managed to keep by my side ever since. I didn’t know what life had in store for me, as well as the wonderful things (and people) I would find on my way. Hope for my future had begun to blossom again. After so much writing and thinking, now I begin to feel ashamed of my confessions! If you allow me, I will finish this letter here. I ask your permission to be able to write to you again.

 

I take this opportunity to express my greatest esteem to you (as people used to say in the past).

Affectionately,

Keiko Nagita”

 

 

Second letter

“Dearest Judy,

The sky was clouded at nightfall. I was reading Daddy Long Legs, accompanied by the pitter patter of the rain, when I felt the impetuous desire to write to you again. My most precious friend, your letters are full of warmth and echo in my ears like a beautiful melody. I am convinced that your benefactor also felt carried away by the sweet sound of each one of your letters. Even though at the beginning he had only asked you for one letter a month so that he would keep himself informed of your progress and daily activities, those letters under your pen have turned into a diary that collected all your experiences. Despite the many times you pleaded with him, Daddy Long Legs never wrote to you. How can anyone resist answering such enchanting words? I remember that thought used to cause me a deep irritation when I was younger. I’ve always believed letters were enveloped in their own magic. Even if you never meet their recipient, they still turn them into someone very important and close. I love writing them, I love receiving them, and whenever I find an envelope with a handwritten address in my mailbox, my heart leaps for joy in my chest. In the same way, I too have used them to tell a story. That’s how I wrote the epistolary novel that served as a basis for the manga Candy Candy (with illustrations by Miss Yumiko Igarashi) which I would be happy to talk to you about. The novel describes the life of Candy, a girl abandoned in an orphanage run by the loving Miss Pony and Sister Lane. You can’t imagine to what extent you have influenced this work! Candy feels grateful to her parents for finding such a welcoming home for her, until despite she is still very young she is received by a rich family with the purpose of making her a companion for the young lady of the house. As she sees herself downgraded to the role of maid, Candy doesn’t give up. Through various adventures, she is finally adopted by an important gentleman whom she has never had the opportunity to meet. I imagine the similarities are striking. It is certain that fate has reserved a more difficult path for Candy, but at some point she makes the decision herself to follow it. I always thought she would lead a quieter life if she just took advantage of the situation in which fate had put her; nevertheless, her pride as an orphan prevented her from accepting it. Despite her heartfelt thanks for the help that was offered to her, she decides to make her way with her own means. In that respect she is like you who have always remained firm in order not to take too much advantage of your benefactor’s good intentions. You wrote to him tirelessly for five years, during which time you met Mr. Jervis and you fell in love with each other. I would have liked to know more details about it, but your letters were always very discreet, so my imagination had to invent that relationship with the little information you gave us. He was fourteen years older than you; however, on some occasions you described him as if he were a boy of your own age. As you confessed to Daddy Long Legs, you loved Mr. Jervis with all your heart, yet you refused his marriage proposal. Let me remind you of what you wrote in your letters:

“It didn’t seem right for a person of my lack of antecedents to marry into any such family as his. I never told him about the orphan asylum, and I hated to explain that I didn’t know who I was.”

My dearest Judy, I can almost hear your voice trying to hold back the tears. I don’t think you were ashamed of being an orphan, but I witnessed with my heart full of grief the way a strong woman crumbles when she discovers what love is. Certainty vanishes, doubts fill the heart and the loved person becomes the only one in the world. I honestly think this is another proof of your deep feelings. Even your creator, Jean Webster, also had a long and full relationship with the man she loved, which over time bore fruit. I can’t think of a greater injustice than the fact that she died the day after giving birth, at the age of only thirty-nine. If Miss Webster had been given more time, who knows how many adventures we would have enjoyed thanks to her. Anyway, the character that was born of her is, in my opinion, the most wonderful love story that has come into the world. More than a century has passed since your story, Daddy Long Legs, saw the light, and now it’s available for Spanish readers. It’s true that times change but in turn many things remain unchangeable. Your words had a profound influence on a Japanese girl like me, so I’m sure it’ll be the same with your Spanish speaking readers who will be taught by you to live with their heads held high despite the circumstances, to value small joys and to enjoy the present. You can’t imagine how happy I feel to have written to you as that gave me the opportunity to express my thanks to both you and Miss Webster. I’m also overflowing with gratitude to all those people who made this moment possible. If I had wings, I would fly all the way to Spain! I’m very grateful to you for taking the time to read my letters which are so long and in which I have probably gained too much confidence. I confess I won’t be able to sleep today.

I take my leave of you on this rainy night, with all the affection and gratitude I’m capable of holding in my heart.

Keiko Nagita”

 

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