Synopsis

Aunt Jane's Nieces on Vacation is a 1912 novel by L. Frank Baum, writing under the name "Edith Van Dyne". Baum's intended title was the more accurate Aunt Jane's Nieces in Journalism, but the publisher changed it without telling him, to his consternation. The title is true enough to begin with. John Merrick and his nieces, return to their vacation home in Millville, in upstate New York, where they are known as Nabobs. The three girls, Patsy Doyle, Beth De Graf, and Louise Merrick Weldon, become bored with vacationing and want to participate more in town life. Beth is a regular reader of newspapers, so with Uncle John's money, they decide to establish a newspaper of their own, with stereotype plates from the wire service liberally peppered with local news and gossip. The latter is primarily handled by Louise. Her husband, Arthur Weldon, has his name highest on the masthead (as was common with female-run organizations at the time), which gets him forced into a duel with one of the yokels.

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