The Emilie Loring Collection

Emilie Loring’s Biography Is Here!

The wait is over. Happy Landings: Emilie Loring’s Life, Writing, and Wisdom will debut in stores this Tuesday, March 14, 2023, right in the middle of Women’s History Month.

Emilie Loring witnessed the last half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth. She had something to say about her work and history. It’s one of my favorite stories about her:

I’ll begin by confessing that the most embarrasing moment of my life is when a friend introduces me somewhat in this fashion: “Miss Blank, I want you to meet Emilie Loring. Of course, you read her work.”

Miss Blank goes slightly red and for an instant more than slightly tongue-tued, then rallies, “I must be honest and say that I don’t. You see, I’m so busy I don’t have time to read fiction.”

To which statement I want to reply, “Gal, contemporary fiction is contemporary history. Read it.”

Instead, I smile and say, “Life is so full of a number of things, isn’t it?” and move on.

Happy Landings: Emilie Loring’s Life, Writing and Wisdom

Impeccable manners, as always.

As we know, each of her novels was set in the year in which it was written, from the years following World War I, through the Great Depression, to World War II and the years beyond. Year by year, she created characters and stories of their times, meant for entertainment, not history–but history nevertheless.

“I hereby frankly declare that I write to entertain”

Like her father before her, Emilie stood up for entertainment as a worthy, even necessary, value in literature–a fight that is not over.

It is my hope, more than ever now when the deep and bitter tragedy of this anguished world lies heavy on every heart, that when my name appears on a gay book jacket, my followers will promptly park their problems outside the cover and fare forth with me into the realm of imagination, where there is always romance, always adventure in a story, salted not too heavily I trust, with my philosophy of life.

Boston Transcript, July 13, 1940

Emilie Loring’s work spoke for her values when it came to harder topics, too.

[She] was not a boundary-pusher, but neither was she a prude or ignorant of contemporary society…

According to the [censorship] guidelines, all crime had to be punished, and the criminal could not be portrayed sympathetically, but Millicent Hale (Lighted Windows) kills her husband, and the authorities agree it is only a tragic mistake. Authority had to be treated with respect, and clergy could not be made to look ridiculous or villainous, but Luther Calvin was portrayed as both in Swift Water. Scenes with real or suggested nudity were prohibited, but Julie Lorraine (Here Comes the Sun!) removes her wet dress and sits companionably with Jim Trafford, wearing only a borrowed robe and slippers, just minutes after first setting eyes on him. Now, Uncharted Seas touched on the banned topic of suicide.

Happy Landings: Emilie Loring’s Life, Writing, and Wisdom

I am glad that Emilie’s biography is now available–and will be more widely on Tuesday!

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On Tuesday, I will introduce new features to The Emilie Loring Collection–a book page, events calendar, and links to reviews and other special content.

Review

I can’t wait to share this link, though. Thanks to Constance Martin for this review on her website, “Staircase Wit.”

Review: Happy Landings: Emilie Loring’s Life, Writing, and Wisdom

Something Really New!!!

Do you already have your autographed copy of Happy Landings? Then look in your email tomorrow for a special invitation to the first meeting of the “Happy Landings Book Club.” We’ll meet Tuesday on Zoom and keep it short for this trial run–half an hour to celebrate, ask me questions, and share our favorite parts of the biography. If it (a) works and (b) seems like fun, then we’ll upscale and try it again.