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Lovelace, Maud Palmer Hart (1892–1980)

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Black and white photograph of Maud Hart Lovelace, Minnesota author, c.1928.

Maud Hart Lovelace, Minnesota author, c.1928.

Minnesota native Maud Hart Lovelace captured her Mankato childhood in her Betsy-Tacy series of thirteen books. During her career, she authored six historical novels for adults as well as five additional books for children.

Maud Palmer Hart was born in Mankato in 1892. Her interest in becoming a writer was evident from an early age. When she was ten years old, her father privately published a book of poetry she created, and at nineteen she published her first short story in the Los Angeles Times. Hart kept diaries and compiled scrapbooks to document her childhood adventures with family and friends. These records would later form the basis for her Betsy-Tacy series of children's books.

Following her graduation from Mankato High School in 1910, Hart attended the University of Minnesota, where she worked on the Minnesota Daily and wrote for the Minnesota Magazine, but she did not graduate. Instead, she spent nearly a year traveling in Europe. She married writer Delos Lovelace in Minneapolis in 1917. Following his return from military service in Europe in World War I, the Lovelaces moved to New York City. He worked as a reporter, and she continued to write.

Maud Lovelace published the first of six historical novels, The Black Angels, in 1926. Her second book, Early Candlelight, appeared in 1929. The book explores the lives of fur traders, Ojibwe and Dakota Indians, and soldiers at Fort Snelling. She coauthored her final historical novel, Gentleman from England, a story about English immigrants living in Martin County, with her husband, in 1937.

Lovelace published thirteen Betsy-Tacy books between 1940 and 1955. The books follow the adventures of Betsy Ray and her friends. The action is set in the fictional town of Deep Valley, from the 1890s to post-World War I. Maud modeled Deep Valley on Mankato. She based the character of Betsy on herself and transformed her best friend, Frances "Bick" Kenney, into "Tacy."

The Betsy-Tacy series comments on fashion, music, theater, foods, social etiquette, and architecture. The books provide a detailed account of the late-Victorian culture and daily life that characterized Lovelace's childhood. Like Betsy’s, Lovelace's childhood home had no indoor plumbing. For entertainment, Lovelace and her family sang together in the parlor as her sister Kathleen played the piano, or read aloud from their favorite books and poems. Maud and her friends played with paper dolls, left "calling cards" at neighbors' homes, dreamed up plays, and visited Heinze's Ice Cream Parlor. They longed to wear the long, grown-up dresses sported by their older sisters, just like the characters in the books.

Lovelace grew up during a time of tremendous change and growth in the United States, and her books reflect those changes. American demographics changed rapidly as immigration to the United States reached a record high during the turn of the century. Newcomers from southern and eastern Europe brought diverse languages, food, and customs to American cities. African Americans migrated in high numbers from the rural south to the urban north. American women achieved the right to vote. Automobiles began to replace the horse and buggy. New inventions, such as typewriters, moving pictures, and radio broadcasts, altered the way Americans worked, lived, and played during the author's childhood.

The Lovelaces had two children. Their first child, Thomas, born in 1925, did not survive. Their second child, daughter Merian, was born in 1931. After many years in New York, the Lovelaces retired to Claremont, California, where Maud died in 1980. Her grave is in Glenwood Cemetery in her hometown of Mankato. The Betsy-Tacy novels continue to be highly regarded for their rich historical detail and for their depiction of strong, creative, independent girls.

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© Minnesota Historical Society
  • Bibliography
  • Related Resources

The Betsy-Tacy Society.
http://www.betsy-tacysociety.org/

Find A Grave. "Maud Hart Lovelace."
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5489

Maud Hart Lovelace, U.S. Social Security Death Index, March 11, 1980, SSN 119-26-2940.

Ray, Jo Anne. "Maud Hart Lovelace and Mankato." In Women of Minnesota: Selected Biographical Essays, edited by Barbara Stuhler and Gretchen Kreuter, 155–72. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1998.

U.S. Census, 1920. Hennepin County, Minneapolis, Ward 8, District 155.

Related Images

Black and white photograph of Maud Hart Lovelace, Minnesota author, c.1928.
Black and white photograph of Maud Hart Lovelace, Minnesota author, c.1928.
Black and white photograph of Third Infantry passing in review for Maud Hart Lovelace, author of Early Candlelight, which was set at Fort Snelling, September 1929.
Black and white photograph of Third Infantry passing in review for Maud Hart Lovelace, author of Early Candlelight, which was set at Fort Snelling, September 1929.
Black and white photograph of Maud Hart Lovelace and husband Delos playing chess, c.1945.
Black and white photograph of Maud Hart Lovelace and husband Delos playing chess, c.1945.
Black and white photograph of Maud Hart Lovelace, c.1931.
Black and white photograph of Maud Hart Lovelace, c.1931.
Black and white photograph of Delos and Maud Hart Lovelace with daughter Merion, c.1931.
Black and white photograph of Delos and Maud Hart Lovelace with daughter Merion, c.1931.
Black and white photograph of Delos Lovelace with his daughter, Merion, c.1931.
Black and white photograph of Delos Lovelace with his daughter, Merion, c.1931.
Black and white photograph of Merion Lovelace, daughter of Delos and Maud Hart Lovelace, c.1931.
Black and white photograph of Merion Lovelace, daughter of Delos and Maud Hart Lovelace, c.1931.
Color scan of the front cover of book jacket for Early Candlelight, a novel by Maud Hart Lovelace, published by the University of Minnesota Press, 1949.
Color scan of the front cover of book jacket for Early Candlelight, a novel by Maud Hart Lovelace, published by the University of Minnesota Press, 1949.
Color scan of the front cover of paperback edition of Maud Hart Lovelace's Gentlemen from England, published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1993.
Color scan of the front cover of paperback edition of Maud Hart Lovelace's Gentlemen from England, published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1993.
Color scan of the front cover of the original edition of Betsy-Tacy, by Maud Hart Lovelace, published by Crowell Publishing Company, 1940. Cover art: Lois Lenski.
Color scan of the front cover of the original edition of Betsy-Tacy, by Maud Hart Lovelace, published by Crowell Publishing Company, 1940. Cover art: Lois Lenski.
Color image of a "I love Betsy-Tacy" pinback button, manufacturer unknown, c.1990-1994.
Color image of a "I love Betsy-Tacy" pinback button, manufacturer unknown, c.1990-1994.

Turning Point

In 1940, Maud Hart Lovelace publishes the first of thirteen Betsy-Tacy children's books.

Chronology

1892

On April 25, Maud Hart is born to Thomas and Stella Hart in Mankato.

1910

Hart graduates from Mankato High School and enters the University of Minnesota.

1912

Hart leaves the University of Minnesota to travel in Europe.

1917

Hart marries Delos Lovelace.

1926

Maud Lovelace's first historical novel, The Black Angels, is published.

January 18, 1931

The Lovelaces’ daughter, Merian Hart Lovelace, is born.

1940

The first Betsy-Tacy novel is published by the (later HarperCollins).

1955

The thirteenth and last Betsy-Tacy novel, Betsy's Wedding, is published.

1961

"Betsy-Tacy Day"—October 7—is sponsored by the Mankato Branch of the American Association of University Women.

1979

The Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award for children's literature is established by the Mankato Friends of the Library Association.

1980

Maud Hart Lovelace dies in California on March 11. She is buried in Mankato's Glenwood Cemetery.

1990

The Betsy-Tacy Society is founded.

1995

The Betsy-Tacy Society purchases the childhood home of Frances Kenney ("Tacy").

2001

Maud Hart Lovelace's childhood home is purchased by the Betsy-Tacy Society.

2010

The Kenney and Hart homes are designated National Literary Landmarks.