Harriet Beecher Stowe 's greatest fame derives from the impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin upon readers of all ages. Its characters, Uncle Tom, Little Eva, Topsy, and Simon Legree, have assumed mythological dimensions in the folk imagination of the world. The author clearly conceived of the novel as suitable for a family audience including young children. Her books written specifically for children have suffered relative obscurity. If literary historians mention them at all, it is condescendingly. In Harriet Beecher Stowe (1963) John R. Adams remarks of her "children's stories" that they "can be disregarded without serious consequences, except as they add a touch of fantasy not exhibited elsewhere in her works: for the most part they contain the same ideas as her books for adults, with much the same expression." However, because Uncle Tom's Cabin is one of the few works by an American woman writer of her time...