The {blank's} Daughter - variation #5,327

On January 1, 2010 Playaway releases The Calligrapher's Daughter, Eugenia Kim's debut novel.  It's a work of historical fiction inspired by the life of the author's mother and taking place in Korea during the 35 years when that nation was brutally controlled by Imperial Japan (1910-1945). The book received a starred review from Publisher's Weekly.

Kim's book makes me think about a lot of things including forgotten history and mothers and daughters.  But it also got me wondering how many books there are with titles in the form of The [blank]'s Daughter.  Currently on Playaway we have the following:

The Bonesetter's Daughter	Tan, Amy
The President's Daughter	Higgins, Jack
The Abortionist's Daughter	Hyde, Elisabeth
The General's Daughter	DeMille, Nelson
The Memory Keeper's Daughter*	Edwards, Kim
The Bootlegger's Daughter*	Maron, Margaret
The Preacher's Daughter*	Lewis, Beverly
The Fortune Teller's Daughter*	Shaara, Lila
The Apothecary's Daughter*	Klassen, Julie
The Bishop's Daughter*	Brunstetter, Wanda
The Quilter's Daughter*	Brunstetter, Wanda
The Storekeeper's Daughter*	Brunstetter, Wanda
The Tsarina's Daughter**	Erickson, Carolly

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* available on Playaway from Recorded Books
* available on Playaway from BBC Audiobooks America

But the list above barely scratches the surface.  There are dozens and dozens of books with titles like this.  Wondering what was up with all the daughters and whether this was a relatively recent formulation, I went scurrying to WorldCat.

I found a bunch of relatively recent titles, starting with The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty, which won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Others included:

The narcissist's daughter	Craig Holden	2005
The mapmaker's daughter	John Pilkington	2004
The firework-maker's daughter	Philip Pullman	1995
The demon count's daughter	Anne Stuart	1980
The taxidermist's daughter	Nancy Schoenberger	1980

(You've got to admit that one about the taxidermist is special -- published in Missoula, Montana by Calliopea Press.) 

I also found these sorts of titles beginning to appear in significant numbers early in the 1800's and continuing on into the early 20th century.   The examples from this period are often morality tales or romantic adventures:

The clergyman's daughter	William Charles White	1810
The robber's daughter	author unknown	1818
The consul's daughter	author unknown	1841
The distiller's daughter	Osgood Bradbury	1844
The pirate's daughter	Eliza A Dupuy	1845
The banditt's daughter	H.L. Williams	1845
The commodore's daughter	B. Barker	1846
The matricide's daughter	Newton Mallory Curtis	1847
The lawyer's daughter	Joseph Alden	1847
The debtor's daughter	T.S. Arthur	1850
The slaveholder's daughter	F. Colburn Adams	1855
The begum's daughter	Edwin Lassetter Bynner	1890
The squire's daughter	Archibald Marshall	1912
The charwoman's daughter	James Stephens	1912
The minister's daughter	Hildur Dixelius	1926

Although there were earlier instances, the trend may have been set by Alexander Pushkin's historical novel, The Captain's Daughter, published in 1836.  The earliest example I found was a 1775 English farce with an unknown author, entitled The Citizen's Daughter.  Obviously, it's a powerful formula for a catchy title.

All of this makes me think of Michael Chabon, who skewers this magnificently in Wonder Boys, the tale of a burned-out academic who, after 10 years of writing, hasn't been able to follow up on his best-selling debut novel: The Arsonist's Daughter.

The 1995 Chabon novel was made into an excellent film in 2000, directed by Curtis Hanson.  Starring Michael Douglas, Tobey McGuire, Robert Downey, Jr., Frances McDormand, and Rip Torn, it's a pitch-perfect send-up of the world of higher education and, come to think of it, the world of publishing as well.  Bob Dylan even won an Oscar for writing the theme song, Things Have Changed.

(By the way, Michael Chabon's 2006 children's title Summerland is available on Playaway.  And his 2007 novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union is available on Playaway from Recorded Books.)

I'm still not sure I get what this whole "daughter" phenomenon is about.  Maybe I'll ask my daughter...

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Posted by David Perrotta, MLIS
Playaway Sr. Manager for Content Strategy

Comments

[Mary Burkey]

Love this! I wonder why this trend hasn't been skewered by a parody a la Pride & Prejudice & Zombies or Goodnight Keith Moon ;-)