Emily Hahn

Emily Hahn was an American journalist and author whose unusually broad career encompassed memoir, biography, history, travel, and fiction for younger audiences. Born in 1905, she became known for reporting and books shaped by extensive travel, including years spent in China. Francie, first published in 1951, begins a three-book sequence about an American teenager encountering life beyond her familiar surroundings. The later volumes are Francie Again: Adventures in Portugal and Francie Comes Home. Editions of the first book appeared through Grosset & Dunlap, Franklin Watts, and the Junior Literary Guild, while a later edition carried the expanded title Francie: Off to London. Hahn’s range extended far beyond this series, with books such as China to Me and The First Book of India demonstrating her ability to address different subjects and audiences. Francie belongs to the part of her bibliography that turns cultural displacement into a young protagonist’s experience, using travel and adjustment as engines for character growth rather than treating foreign settings as mere decoration.