This image is the cover for the book Star People

Star People

The Fairy Book of Astronomy — A Lost Classic Back in Print Katharine Fay Dewey’s only novel was forgotten by time, going out of print after only one edition was published in 1910… and now her legacy has been given new life. The traditional mythology of the zodiac constellations is well-known, but what happened after those stories were over? How do the people in the sky now interact with each other, with other beings of the heavens, and with those down on Earth? Here, four girls illuminate the Star People’s adventures in a series of intricately woven tales of friendship, coming-of-age, and found family in the ever-shifting landscape of the celestial sphere. This new edition contains original illustrations by Frances B. Comstock and a foreword from author and journalist D.P. Benjamin that reveals long-lost information on Katharine Fay Dewey. Like sailors using the night sky to navigate a vast ocean, Star People and the story of its author have found their way to a new, modern readership.

Katharine Faye Dewey, D. P. Benjamin, Mckenzie Moore

Katharine Fay Dewey was born in Rutland, Vermont, in 1865 to Julia Fay Hodges and Charles Carroll Dewey. After the death of her father—the influential editor of the Rutland Herald—Katharine, along with her mother and six step-siblings, relocated to San Francisco in 1879. There, she began to make a name for herself among the elite women of society, including membership in The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America. She later moved to New York City where she continued to build connections with members of high society, which may have been the inspiration for her novel, Star People. Building on a growing nationwide fascination with the night sky, she collaborated with well-known illustrator Frances B. Comstock to create a fairytale of celestial characters. Katharine and her mother promoted the book throughout New England, as well as in other major American cities, Canada, and Great Britain after the book’s release in 1910 to mixed reviews. Katharine died in Massachusetts at age 88, having written several short-form pieces but leaving her book legacy entirely in the pages of her first and only novel.

WordFire Press