neighbors and the local high school library. “I liked action and mysteries.”10 She also loved St. Nicholas, a popular monthly magazine for children.
Every month Millie would have high-tailed it up to the Ladora post office, just two blocks up the street, in her laced shoes and dresses made by her mother. She couldn’t wait for the newest issue of St. Nicholas magazine to arrive.
Millie would sift through the pages filled with action, adventure, and even a hint of romance. She would daydream over ads for products of interest to children and their parents, including Fairy Soap for five cents. The pages were filled with beautiful illustrations and educational articles too.
A new department of the magazine created in 1899 set Millie on her course as a writer. The St. Nicholas League offered subscribers a chance to send stories to the magazine and to win recognition for their efforts. Millie submitted a story titled “The Courtesy,” which was published in the June 1919 issue of St. Nicholas. The issue’s “Competition No. 232” under the prose category lists Silver Badge winner Mildred Augustine, age thirteen, of Iowa.
A PROVING GROUND FOR WRITERS
ST. NICHOLAS was the magazine for children and, often, their parents,11 The magazine was published between 1873 and 1940.
Many famous writers wrote for the magazine, including Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Young readers who, like Millie, sent stories through the St. Nicholas League include such famous authors as F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. B. White, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.
A writer was born.
Or, at least, a published writer.
As Millie offered years later, “I’ve written since the time that I was able to walk on my feet.”12
Her mother supported her in her aspirations, but her father laughed at her and told her that he thought it would be difficult to make a living at writing. Dr. Augustine hoped that she would follow in his footsteps in the medical profession. Millie felt otherwise. “When I made up my mind to do something I did it.”13
Millie continued to submit stories to St. Nicholas and other publications while living in Ladora. She would walk down to the post office to see if a letter had arrived from a publisher accepting her work.
Millie was not quite seventeen when she became one of four graduates from Ladora High in June 1922. She had taken summer courses in Iowa City in order to complete her high school education early.14 Millie’s wandering feet were ready to move on and out of Ladora. But did she really leave Ladora behind? She told a reporter years later that “the flavor of a small town stays with you all your life.”15
ST. NICHOLAS MAGAZINE
Special Collections, The University of Iowa Libraries
MILDRED’S FIRST PUBLISHED WORK
Special Collections, The University of Iowa Libraries
That may be true, but Millie’s desire to follow her dream took her away from Ladora and eventually to many cities that she only imagined seeing as a child. So where did her feet take her next? Where did her writing?
DID YOU KNOW?
Elwyn Brooks “E. B.” White not only wrote Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little, but was also the coauthor of the guide to writing style, The Elements of Style, also known as “Strunk & White.”
THE THIRD CLUE
COLLEGE DAYS
The Case of the Hawkeye
So now your room is silent.
The whole house seems silent too;
Every object which confronts me
Seems incomplete without you.
Yes, your silent room, it haunts me
Every garment left behind
Have memories from which bring a tear
For the loved one I cannot find.
—Lillian Augustine, “Mildred’s Room” 1
LILLIAN MISSED her daughter when she left Ladora for the campus of the University of Iowa2 in Iowa City. As you are about to learn, Millie dove right in to her college experiences. Literally.
Millie’s choice of college might have been determined by several factors. Perhaps her father wanted her to attend his alma mater. Maybe Lillian wanted her daughter close to home. Or maybe Millie was impressed that the University of Iowa was the first public university to admit men and women on an equal basis.
STUDENTS LEAVING THE HALL OF LIBERAL ARTS ON THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA CAMPUS, 1920
University Archives, The University of Iowa Libraries. Copyright 2013 the University of Iowa. All rights reserved.
Maybe the college’s journalism class offerings that began in 1915 appealed to this blossoming writer.3 Most of all, the campus newspaper may have had a role in her choice. The Daily Iowan, the first campus newspaper west of the Mississippi, had ties to the United Press and offered students practical experience. The newspaper was written, edited, and managed by students.
Millie became a University of Iowa Hawkeye.
Students can still be seen today reading the Daily Iowan, now one of the largest student newspapers in the country. For an avid reader like Millie, the paper served as a great resource as well.
Millie likely picked up a copy of the September 21, 1922, edition on the first day of registration on campus. The paper announced that the enrollment was expected to exceed the 5,980 students from the year prior. Millie may have been quite excited by the number of students. The student population was over ten times that of Ladora!
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA CAMPUS MAP, 1922–23
University Archives, The University of Iowa Libraries. Copyright 2013 the University of Iowa. All rights reserved.
After completing registration, Millie walked to Currier Hall and settled into room 1573, her home for her freshman year.4 She may have kicked off her shoes and sat on her new bed, reading the rest of the Daily Iowan.
Page fifteen of the paper featured a story on the progress of several buildings on campus. Work on the focal point of the university, the Iowa Old Capitol Building, with its golden dome, was to be completed that fall. The building had been the original seat of Iowa state government until the capital moved to Des Moines in 1857.5
