A bronze statue of the eternally optimistic Pollyanna stands on Main Street, celebrating Eleanor H. Porter, who was born in Littleton in 1868. Porter's 1913 novel introduced the world to the glad game, and this cheerful figure — arms outstretched, face upturned — has become the town's unofficial mascot. Each June the town holds a Pollyanna Glad Day festival around the statue.
story: "Eleanor Porter grew up in Littleton and set her most famous novel in a fictional New England town very much like her hometown. When she died in 1920, the book had already sold over a million copies and been adapted for the stage — her optimistic heroine had become a byword for relentless positivity in both English and a dozen other languages."