Emilie Loring

Emilie Baker Loring (September 5, 1866 – March 13, 1951) was an American romance novelist of the 20th century. She began writing in 1914 at the age of 50 and continued until her death after a long illness in 1951.[1] After her death, her estate was managed by her sons, Selden M. and Robert M. Loring, who, based on a wealth of unfinished material they discovered,[2] published twenty more books under her name until 1972. These books were ghost-written by Elinore Denniston.

Personal life

Emilie Loring was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1866 to George M. Baker and Emily Frances (Boles) Baker. Her father was a playwright and publisher and her mother was a homemaker. Loring married Victor J. Loring, who was a lawyer.[2] She died in Wellesley, Massachusetts on March 13, 1951.[1] At the time of her death, Loring had sold more than a million copies of her first thirty books.

Loring's sister, Rachel Baker Gale, wrote a number of suffrage parlor plays.

Loring's son, Selden M. Loring was also an author. He wrote Young Buckskin Spy (Lantern Press, 1954) and Mighty Magic: An Almost-True Story of Pirates and Indians (Holliday House, 1964).

The papers of Emilie Loring are housed in the Department of Special Collections, Boston University, Mugar Memorial Library.[3]

Works

The majority of Loring's books are highly romantic mysteries that focus on a young, independent woman with courage and ideals who finds herself in a tricky situation, relies on the help of a strong, handsome man and ends up with him at the end of the story. Beyond romance and mystery, her books also explore a selection of topics including marriage, love, the work ethic, American patriotism, freedom and optimism.

She enjoyed painting pictures with words, often describing the environment, architecture, dress, food and physical features of characters in exacting and colorful detail. In the books published after she died, a lot of the colorful description was left out. Another major difference in the books published before and after the author's death is the characters' language, a change for the better. In a lot of the early books, too many of the characters use American slang, which sounds like it came straight from the early talkies.

Loring's work features several repeating motifs; among them are a heroine in her early '20s with dark hair, a dark-haired lawyer or aspiring politician for a hero, a secondary male predisposed to speaking in quotations, a "sleek" bad guy, a wise older woman who may or may not end up with a wise older man who has long been in love with her, a flirtatious blond woman vying for the hero and New England as a setting or character trait: "New England granite." Often-used plot devices in her novels include an orphaned character, a marriage of convenience or contract, a clandestine marriage and trouble coming from outside a well-knit social structure.

Her book Beyond the Sound of Guns (1945) is referenced nine times in America’s Popular Sayings: Over 1600 Expressions on Topics from Beauty to Money and Everything In Between by Gregory Titelman, citing phrases that turn out to be quotes or paraphrases from someone else.

List of published works

Books (alphabetical by title)

Release
Date
Title Publisher(s)
1939 Across the Years Little, Brown
1937 As Long As I Live Penn
1947 Beckoning Trails Little, Brown
1958 Behind the Cloud Little, Brown
1945 Beyond the Sound of Guns Little, Brown
1946 Bright Skies Little, Brown
1964 A Candle in Her Heart Little, Brown
1925 A Certain Crossroad Penn
1931 Fair Tomorrow Penn
1963 Follow Your Heart Little, Brown
1952 For All Your Life Little, Brown
1965 Forever and a Day Little, Brown
1971 Forsaking All Others Little, Brown
1928 Gay Courage Penn
1936 Give Me One Summer Penn
1924 Here Comes the Sun! Penn
1938 High of Heart Little, Brown
1933 Hilltops Clear Penn
1960 How Can the Heart Forget? Little, Brown
1948 I Hear Adventure Calling Little, Brown
1954 I Take This Man Little, Brown
1968 In Times Like These Little, Brown
1935 It's a Great World! Penn
1944 Keepers of the Faith Little, Brown
1967 A Key to Many Doors Little, Brown
1930 Lighted Windows Penn
1957 Look to the Stars Little, Brown
1949 Love Came Laughing By Little, Brown
1969 Love with Honor Little, Brown
1954 My Dearest Love Little, Brown
1970 No Time for Love Little, Brown
1942 Rainbow at Dusk Little, Brown
1955 The Shadow of Suspicion Little, Brown
1972 The Shining Years Little, Brown
1927 The Solitary Horseman Penn
1966 Spring Always Comes Little, Brown
1941 Stars in Your Eyes Little, Brown
1929 Swift Water Penn
1940 There Is Always Love Little, Brown
1962 Throw Wide the Door Little, Brown
1950 To Love and to Honor Little, Brown
1938 Today Is Yours Little, Brown
1922 The Trail of Conflict Penn
1932 Uncharted Seas Penn
1934 We Ride the Gale Penn
1956 What Then Is Love Little, Brown
1943 When Hearts are Light Again Little, Brown
1941 Where Beauty Dwells Little, Brown
1934 With Banners Penn
1955 With This Ring Little, Brown

Articles and short stories

Play

  • Where’s Peter? (Penn, 1928)

Books

  • For the comfort of the family; a vacation experiment (George H. Doran Company, 1914)
  • The Mother in the Home (Pilgrim, 1917)

Articles and short stories

  • "Rush order for fancy dress." St. Nicholas Magazine, Vol. 41, p. 977, September 1914.
  • "Gossip; an endless chain." St. Nicholas Magazine, Vol. 42, p. 508-9, April 1915.
  • "The delicate art of being a mother-in-law." Woman’s Home Companion, vol. 46, p. 100, June 1919.

Her earlier books, published from 1922 to 1937, were originally published in hardcover by William Penn & Company in Philadelphia. Her books from 1938 to 1950 were originally published by Little, Brown and Company, as were all of her posthumous works. All thirty of her novels written during her lifetime were reprinted by Grosset (now Grosset & Dunlap) in 1961. Later all of her works were reprinted in mass market paperback editions by the romance division of Bantam Books.

As late as 2005, Thorndike Press, an imprint of Thomson Gale, was reprinting select titles in large-print format, although their website did not show them in their 2007 catalog.[5] Little, Brown and Company owns the copyright on books dated (1952?) to 1954. Emilie Loring’s sons, Robert and Selden, are listed as "Child of the author" in searchable copyright renewal records.[6]

Selden was listed first in the copyright information from 1955 to 1960 (or 1961?). From 1962 to 1971, Robert is listed first in the copyright information. In the 1972 novel The Shining Years, only Robert is listed as the copyright owner as the Executor of the Estate of Emilie Baker Loring.

Books, articles, and other references to Emilie Loring

  • Emilie Loring: A Twentieth Century Romanticist, by Dorothea Lawrance Mann. Philadelphia: Penn Publishing Company, 1928. (out-of-print)
  • Something about the author: facts and pictures about authors and illustrators of books for young people, vol. 51, edited by Anne Commire. Gale Research, 1988. pp. 103–104. (out-of-print)
  • Pitfalls for Readers of Fiction, by Hazel Sample. Chicago: National Council of Teachers of English, [1940]. Available for purchase only at [7]
  • Twentieth-century romance and gothic writers, edited by James Vinson. Gale Research, 1982. pp. 443–445. ISBN 0-8103-0226-8
  • Twentieth-century romance and historical writers, 2nd ed., edited by Lesley Henderson. Chicago, St. James Press, 1990. pp. 406–407. ISBN 0-912289-97-X, 3rd Edition, edited by Aruna Vasudevan, St. James Press, 1994. ISBN 1-55862-180-6 [8]
  • American Novelists of Today, by Harry R. Warfel. American Book, 1951. Greenwood Press Reprint, 1973. ISBN 0-8371-6235-1

References

  1. Time Magazine Obituaries, March 26, 1951
  2. Emilie Loring Reference Page, vol. 51, edited by Anne Commire. Gale Research, 1988. pp. 103-104.
  3. Website of the archives of the Department of Special Collections, Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University
  4. "Crowell, Collier, Knapp". Ketupa.net. Archived from the original on 2013-01-23. Retrieved 2012-11-22.
  5. "Thorndike Press - Home". Gale. 2012-05-19. Retrieved 2012-11-22.
  6. "The Public's Library and Digital Archive". ibiblio. Retrieved 2012-11-22.
  7. Norton, John K. (2008-01-14). "Article". TCRecord. Retrieved 2012-11-22.
  8. "St James Press - Home". Gale. Retrieved 2012-11-22.
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