Chrysti the Wordsmith > Radio Scripts

A person gifted with an irrepressibly sunny, optimistic nature is often called a Pollyanna. The origin of this moniker is a fictional heroine created by the American writer Elenor Hogeman Porter, a New England native, who published her sweetly sentimental novel Pollyanna in 1913.

The novel tells the story of a girl from a very poor family who compensates for life's difficulties by playing the "glad game," a diversion that looks for any shred of hope during the darkest times. Pollyanna teaches her "glad game" to other needy people, thus changing her little village of Beldingsville for the good.

Pollyanna was an American best seller from 1913-1915. Helen Hays played the lead role in the 1916 Broadway adaptation of the novel; Mary Pickford starred in the 1920 motion picture version, and Hayley Mills revived the movie role in 1960.

The name Pollyanna has since entered the language as a synonym for an unflappable, and sometimes syrupy and unrealistic optimist.

Pollyanna is a classic example of an eponym -- a word derived from the name of a real or fictional person.

Radio Script > Pollyanna