NH NH - Barbara Newhall Follet, 25, Rodgers, 7 Dec 1939

[southern_scout]

I had never heard of Barbara Newhall Follett until I read this essay. Very interesting old missing persons case about an author who was made famous by her first novel "The House Without Windows", which was published in 1927 when she was 12 years old. She apparently went on to a rather unhappy marriage, had children, and vanished in 1939. Her husband reported her missing four weeks after she walked out after a fight, but reported it under her married name and it went largely unnoticed.

http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/essays/vanishing-act.php?page=all
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/18/132135938/barbara-newhall-follett-disappearing-child-genius

*edited to add that she went missing from Brookline, MA, not NH.

 

[momtolil]

Loved the NPR story.... The picture of her is almost haunting.
Sounds like she left on her own accord, hopefully to live a happier life.
I researched the book she wrote when she was still a child.The book seems to be out of print. It would be interesting to read. It was basically from what I gather about a girl's search for a more beautiful world. Sounds almost poetic if you look at the case in a way that things turned out in a way she may have wanted them to. Maybe she finally did escape as her books seemed to lead up to.

So sad, she seemed very lonely. Her unhappiness and distress about life almost sounds like something that a good dose of anti-depressants would have cured in present times.
Would love to know where she went, but it sounds like one of those mysteries that will never be solved.

 

[momtolil]

I guess having so much intelligence and creativity going on in your head at such a young age can really set you up for quite a fall later in life, as the article suggests.
Though she was distraught and possibly feeling like a failure due to her husbands infidelities and her lack of great success as an adult. It seems to me that having been such a young prodigy and having such a talent, she might have tried to stay in touch with family and friends and created a new life for herself.

On the other hand...As far as her husband goes... I wonder why he waited so long to report her missing.
Sounds rather fishy to me. Especially putting the report in her married name. Because he knew it would buy him time??

This does me think of foul play on the husbands part.

 

[sealevel]

What a fascinating story. She seems like a very resourceful, determined lady. I hope she ended up safe and found what she was searching for.

 

[iconoclast]

Reading the full article, it certainly seems like the husband, Nickerson Rogers, had more than a little to do with her disappearance.

http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/essays/vanishing-act.php?page=all

From what I can find he died in 1980, still living in New Hampshire, so I guess we can't know at this point.

 

[southern_scout]

Yeah, I doubt this one will ever be resolved, but I found it fascinating, all the same.

 

[Bluejay_Young]

Her unhappiness and distress about life almost sounds like something that a good dose of anti-depressants would have cured in present times.

Drugs were part of Barbara's problem. According to her letters, she used prescription sleeping pills, probably Seconals, which she called "dope". Except on rare occasions, she could not get to sleep without them, and may have been addicted. Looks like she drank alcohol to enhance their effect, never a good idea.

Some years ago, an anonymous fan published speculations on his blog regarding this aspect of Barbara's life. He thinks Barbara may actually have died of an overdose, and her husband covered it up to avoid a scandal.

I fished the Barbara entries out of his blog out of oblivion at archive.org a year or so ago and offer them here along with some other stuff. You should also be sure to read Stephen Cooke's Farksolia, the official BNH site.

Astral Aviary, the Barbara Newhall Follett Archive

 

[PFF]

Biography and Photograph
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Newhall_Follett

 

[alb1on]

View attachment about barbara.pdf

The above file is an essay by Barbara's half-nephew. It seems to provide a better, family, perspective on the background to the disappearance. Especially, it makes clear that her husband had asked for a divorce and that she disappeared after what seemed like a failed attempt to make the marriage work again. As such, it would be consistent with any one of the possible scenarios; a planned disappearance, foul play or suicide. The article does not support the suggestion that Barbara had a history of depression or mental problems - quite the reverse; she seemed fairly normal and happy until the marriage breakdown only a short while before she disappeared.
The essay comes from Ancestry where it is attached to the family tree.

 

[Archangel85]

She had runaway before according to an article from 1929. She was arrested by a probation officer

 

[SeeThemFly]

Do we have any information on Nickerson Rogers after Barbara's disappearance. Did he remarry?

 

[bambi_sue]

I came across this essay in Outside Magazine about Barbara and was instantly intrigued:

https://www.outsideonline.com/2280101/art-vanishing-laura-smith-excerpt

The essay is adapted from Laura Smith's excellent memoir, The Art of Vanishing. I read it in an evening, heart pounding through most of it. The mystery of Barbara's curious and adventurous life and her disappearance are interwoven with the author's modern love story and journey as a writer, but it's a great read. Needless to say, Laura does not find Barbara - no spoiler, we would've heard it in the news if she had, but she does extensive research including talking to family members of Nickerson and Barbara. If you have an interest in this case, I highly recommend the book.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072MXNSBY/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

 

[bambi_sue]

Do we have any information on Nickerson Rogers after Barbara's disappearance. Did he remarry?

According to the memoir I mentioned, Nickerson was having an affair and that's why he wanted to break it off with Barbara. They agreed to work on it, but after she disappeared he did marry the woman he was having an affair with. They were married the rest of their lives and who two daughters, both of which did not want to discuss Barbara's disappearance with the author.

 

[alb1on]

It seems that there is a possible resolution to this disappearance. In 2019 Daniel Mills published his research which led him to a possible identification of Barbara with remains found in 1948 in woods in Holderness, NH - where Barbara and her husband had rented a house. The findings are not definitive but are persuasive and have been accepted by her nephew who had previously believed she probably chose to make a new life under a new identity. An article by Mills which includes the key details, is at A Place of Vanishing: Barbara Newhall Follett and the Woman in the Woods - Los Angeles Review of Books and the views of her nephew, updated to reflect this research, can be found at Biography - Farksolia.

The unfortunate thing is that the remains found in 1948 seem to have been lost by the authorities, so it is not possible to do DNA testing to compare with her nephew or other family members.

 

[Stella]

It seems that there is a possible resolution to this disappearance. In 2019 Daniel Mills published his research which led him to a possible identification of Barbara with remains found in 1948 in woods in Holderness, NH - where Barbara and her husband had rented a house. The findings are not definitive but are persuasive and have been accepted by her nephew who had previously believed she probably chose to make a new life under a new identity. An article by Mills which includes the key details, is at A Place of Vanishing: Barbara Newhall Follett and the Woman in the Woods - Los Angeles Review of Books and the views of her nephew, updated to reflect this research, can be found at Biography - Farksolia.

The unfortunate thing is that the remains found in 1948 seem to have been lost by the authorities, so it is not possible to do DNA testing to compare with her nephew or other family members.

Good job by her nephew; I'm personally satisfied that he solved her case. Now I'm wondering about Elsie Whittemore!

 

[Cimatico]

Enhanced image from source Barbara Newhall Follett, Disappearing Child Genius

 

[18thcenturylady]

I had never heard of Barbara Newhall Follett until I read this essay. Very interesting old missing persons case about an author who was made famous by her first novel "The House Without Windows", which was published in 1927 when she was 12 years old. She apparently went on to a rather unhappy marriage, had children, and vanished in 1939. Her husband reported her missing four weeks after she walked out after a fight, but reported it under her married name and it went largely unnoticed.

Issue Content Essay | Lapham’s Quarterly
Barbara Newhall Follett, Disappearing Child Genius

*edited to add that she went missing from Brookline, MA, not NH.

Barbara never had any children.

 

[Vegas Bride]

How I wish she did choose to walk away, creating a new life for herself.

Would she have done that to her mother though?
She was so young, I find it very suspicious that remains were found in an area that she and her husband had gone to before.

 

[rosesfromangels]

Enhanced image from source Barbara Newhall Follett, Disappearing Child Genius

She was quite beautiful. I think it is most likely the remains are hers, and that the unfaithful husband harmed her.

Amateur opinion and speculation

 

[Richard]

Barbara Newhall Follett, 25 Missing since 7 December 1939

Barbara Newhall Follett was a bit of a writing prodigy in the Jazz Age. She published a critically acclaimed novel at age 13. Everybody agreed that she would be the next great American writer, and she probably would have been, if it hadn’t been for her father. He ran off with a younger woman, leaving her and her mother penniless. She started working as a typist at age 16 and was never known to write again.

In 1939, after 10 years of this, Follett had an argument with her husband, left her house, and simply disappeared. He did not look very hard for her, and police and the press weren’t even notified until 1966. It’s possible that she died, but it’s also possible that she disappeared very successfully...