Star People

Katharine Fay Dewey was born in Rutland, Vermont in 1865 to Julia Fay Hodges and Charles Carroll Dewey. After the death of her father – the influential editor of the Rutland Herald – Katharine, along with her mother and six step-siblings, relocated to San Francisco in 1879. There, she began to make a name for herself among the elite women of society, including membership in The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America. She later moved to New York City where she continued to build connections with members of high society, which may have been the inspiration for her novel, Star People. Building on a growing nationwide fascination with the night sky, she collaborated with well-known illustrator Frances B. Comstock to create a fairytale of celestial characters. Katharine and her mother promoted the book throughout New England, as well as in other major American cities, Canada, and Great Britain after the book’s release in 1910 to mixed reviews. Katharine died in Massachusetts at age 88, having written several short-form pieces but leaving her book legacy entirely in the pages of her first and only novel.