While the series never went completely out of print, the earlier books proved more popular than the four “high school” books and others that came later.
Both Lovelaces wrote several books of adult fiction, including Maud’s historical novel “Early Candlelight.”īut it was the B-T series, written from 1940 to 1955, that gave Lovelace her place in the history of children’s literature. With her husband Delos - “Joe” in the books - Lovelace spent several years in Greenwich Village, New York City, pursuing a career as a writer. Whalen’s friendship with Lovelace’s only daughter, Merion, helped her trace Maud’s years after “Betsy’s Wedding,” the last book in the series. “I had to convince them I wasn’t crazy.”ĭozens of treasured family photographs collected from those who knew Lovelace illustrate “The Companion,” including the real-life Tacy, whose name was Frances “Bick” Kenney, and the real Tib, who went by “Midge” Gerlach. “It took a while to convince some of them that it was OK to let me search through their attics for pictures and bits of Maud’s life,” Whalen laughed. Whalen’s telephone bills ran to $300 a month as she sought out the real people and relatives of the real people behind Maud’s fictional characters. The 10 B-T books are actually a thinly-veiled autobiography of Lovelace’s own childhood and adolescence - with Betsy standing for Maud herself. Working mornings at a technical publishing company left Whalen’s afternoons free to delve into the Lovelace material at the Mankato Historical Society and Minnesota’s public libraries. “I was just out of college and looking for a job, and I thought the book would be it,” she said. the fictional Deep Valley of the books - on a visit to meet her future husband’s family.
Whalen’s interest in things Betsy bloomed anew shortly after graduating from the University of Notre Dame. But Lovelace, who died in 1980, was too ill to answer much fan mail. When she was 14, she even wrote Lovelace, asking about her background. Whalen, a 34-year-old mother of three, read the books as a child in Royal Oaks, Mich. “One thing about Betsy-Tacy fans, you don’t really have to say much about yourself.
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