Dear Enemy

Jean Webster's Dear Enemy tells its story through letters written by Sallie McBride, who reluctantly agrees to serve as temporary superintendent of the John Grier Home orphanage. Her correspondents include her friend Judy Abbott, Judy's husband Jervis Pendleton, politician Gordon Hallock, and the institution's Scottish doctor, Robin “Sandy” MacRae. Sallie's teasing salutation to MacRae gives the novel its title.

The letters record a practical education in responsibility. Sallie recruits supporters, foster parents, and volunteers, improves living conditions, and challenges trustees who underestimate both her and the women she employs. Reform means replacing an impersonal institutional model with care attentive to children's emotional, physical, and individual needs.

Her work also changes her private choices. Gordon expects a more conventional future and doubts the value of women's paid leadership, whereas MacRae's difficult temperament is joined to serious engagement with the children's welfare. Sallie's different tone with each recipient reveals relationships developing before she fully names them. Dear Enemy combines social reform with comedy and romance, examining orphan care, hereditary theories, divorce, women's work, and the way sustained public service can reshape a life once organized around leisure and expectation.