A letter from the Granite Monthly editor H.C. Pearson to FPK discussing FPKs suggestions about increasing the number of subscribers.

Frances Parkinson Keyes’s interest in writing existed from a very early age. In an interview, she stated that her “writing career really began at the age of seven when a young friend and I collaborated on a ‘pageant.’”[1] After marrying Henry (Harry) Keyes, Frances Keyes spent “a long novitiate… at the farm,” in Haverhill, New Hampshire, where she would “write a little” every day.[2] Keyes kept her writings private until a contribution she submitted to a small, local publication, the Granite Monthly, was published in 1918.[3] At the time, her stature as New Hampshire’s Governor’s wife made her a welcome addition to the magazine and H.C. Pearson, the Granite Monthly’s editor, was enamored with Keyes and the exposure she brought to his struggling magazine. Her understanding of national politics, which was honed as the wife of a Governor and soon-to-be U.S. Senator, made her an invaluable asset to the magazine.

In just a short time, Keyes was personally advising Pearson on methods to improve the subscriber numbers to the Granite Monthly and she continued to write for the magazine until 1926. However, the coming decade would be one of explosive growth in her magazine writing career. In 1920, Keyes began writing for both the Delineator and Good Housekeeping and she would continue to write for these magazines until 1935 and 1937 respectively when she accepted the position as editor of the DAR magazine. Good Housekeeping became Keyes’ home and she would see in this magazine the publication of some of her best-received and most important articles, including those that were part of her series “Letters from a Senator’s Wife.”