From the original review in Newport Daily News, March 1951: This is the poignant story, by Maud Hart Lovelace, of a girl who has a difficult adjustment to make, and makes it with courage and success. Emily Webster was an orphan who lived with her grandfather, a Civil War veteran.
When the story opens she is graduating from high school in the class of 1912. She is a class officer and she goes with a merry crowd of girls. Many of the class go off to college, but Emily, although she longs for more education, will not leave her grandfather. Read More→
Elizabeth von Arnim (August 31, 1866 – February 9, 1941) was born Mary Annette Beauchamp in Sydney, Australia. This prolific writer was best known for The Enchanted April and Elizabeth and her German Garden, though the psychological thriller Vera is arguably her masterwork.
When she was young, her parents moved their family to London, and it was there and in Switzerland that she enjoyed a privileged upbringing and education. A rather shy child in the midst of a brood of siblings, she early on became an avid reader, and also showed precocious musical ability.
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From the 1946 edition, Alfred A. Knopf: In this novel by Willa Cather, Cécile Auclair is a child in the Quebec of the waning seventeenth century, when both Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac, Governor of French Canada, and François-Xavier de Laval-Montmorency, the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec, are very old men living their last days.
The city on the rock above the St. Lawrence, though containing only about two thousand souls, retains many Old World characteristics and amenities.
Through Cécile Auclair and her father Euclide, the apothecary protected by Frontenac, Miss Cather recreated the atmosphere, life, and historical events of those days when new men, less influenced by European ideas, had begun to reshape the city’s life and thought. Read More→
From the 1940 Grossett & Dunlap edition of Chronicles of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery, originally published in 1912: The first thing every young reader will want to know about this collection by L.M. Montgomery is whether Anne Shirley appears in this collection of stories of Avonlea and Spencervale.
She certainly does. As a matter of fact, page one starts off in this manner: “Anne Shirley was curled up on the window seat of Theodore Dix’s sitting-room one Saturday evening, looking dreamily afar at some fair star land behind the hills of sunset …” Read More→
From the 1940 Grossett & Dunlap edition of Anne of Avonlea, the 1909 sequel to Anne of Green Gables:
“A tall, slim girl, ‘half-past sixteen’ with serious grey eyes and hair which her friends called auburn, had sat down on the broad red sandstone doorstep of a Prince Edward Island farmhouse …”
So began this gentle and much-loved sequel to Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. Five years have passed since the orphan girl Anne Shirley came to the childless home of siblings Matthew and Marilla , bringing with her all of the joy and love of her generous nature.
She has come back to Avonlea to teach school in the same village school where she herself was taught. Teaching in neighboring village schools are her friends Diana Berry, Jane Andrews, Priscilla Gray, and Gilbert Blythe. Read More→
Early on in her writing career, an incident in Agatha Christie’s personal life practically transformed her into a character from her mystery novels. Already a well-known author (though nowhere near the fame she would later achieve), she went missing on December 3, 1926, her whereabouts unknown for eleven days.
So intense was the concern over her disappearance that a nationwide search ensued in England.
At the time, Agatha was 36 years old, and had been married to Archie Christie since 1914. Though they were initially in love, their relationship was stormy from the start, and time proved that they weren’t a good match.
Some time before the disappearance incident, Archie had met Nancy Neele, and the two embarked on an affair. When he confessed the liaison to Agatha, the couple quarreled, and in a pique, Agatha took off in her car. Read More→
Every Pride and Prejudice fan can quote the famous opening line of Jane Austen’s beloved classic, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” There are lots more gems where that came from, as evidenced by the memorable quotes from Pride and Prejudice on life, love, and marriage that follow.
Jane’s family recognized her talent, and with the assistance of her father and brothers, they sought to find a publisher for Pride and Prejudice. Amazingly considering the book’s iconic status, they met with no success. Soon, they embarked on a similar mission for Sense and Sensibility. Read More→
Dear Literary Ladies,
I always thought that one needed great swathes of time to get any writing done. Now I hear that some esteemed authors worked in short bursts and still produced an enormous amount of brilliant work. How did you do it, and what did you do with the rest of your time?
I work from two and a half to three hours a day. I don’t hold myself to longer hours; if I did, I wouldn’t gain by it. The only reason I write is because it interests me more than any other activity I’ve ever found. I like riding, going to operas and concerts, travel in the west; but on the whole writing interests me more than anything else. Read More→
