Impact & Influence

Biography

Major Works

Scholarly Works

Audio/Video

Impact & Influence

Lovelace is remembered today and honored with the annual Maud Hart Lovelace Award, which was established in 1980 and is given by the Minnesota Youth Reading Awards each year. Two new fiction books, one for children in grades three through five and one for children in grades six through eight receive an award. Children who have read at least three books in their category may participate in the voting.

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Biography

On her fifth birthday, Maud Hart Lovelace's fate was sealed: she met the girl who would become her best friend and provide material for the beloved Betsy-Tacy books she would later write. Born in 1892 in Mankato, Minnesota, Lovelace chronicled the childhood adventures she and her friends experienced — making "everything pudding," cutting their own hair and venturing into town. After high school, Lovelace began classes at the University of Minnesota, but later left, citing health reasons. Although she was engaged several times to a man named Russell McCord, she ended up marrying Delos Lovelace, a fellow writer. Lovelace published several articles in her early adult life, including "Her Story," which appeared in Minnesota Magazine in 1912, and "Number Eight," which appeared in the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine. In 1921, the Lovelaces moved to New York, and in 1931, they welcomed the birth of their daughter. In 1953, they moved again to Claremont, California, where both Maud and Delos were involved with the Civil Rights Movement and founded an Episcopalian church. Although she never returned to live in Minnesota, Lovelace published several books set in her home state, including her first book, The Black Angels, a historical novel. Lovelace's famous Betsy-Tacy books were also set in her girlhood hometown and proved to be quite successful. Lovelace died in 1980 and is buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Mankato.

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Major Works

The Black Angels (1926)
Early Candlelight (1929)
Petticoat Court (1930)
The Charming Sally (1932)
One Stayed at Welcome (1934, with Delos Lovelace)
Gentlemen from England (1937, with Delos Lovelace)
Betsy-Tacy (1940)
Betsy-Tacy and Tib (1941)
Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill (1942)
The Golden Wedge: Indian Legends of South America (1942, with Delos Lovelace)
Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown (1943)
Heaven to Betsy (1945)
Betsy in Spite of Herself (1946)
Betsy Was a Junior (1947)
Betsy and Joe (1948)
Carney's House Party (1949)
Emily of Deep Valley (1950)
The Tune Is in the Tree (1950)
The Trees Kneel at Christmas (1951)
Betsy and the Great World (1952)
Winona's Pony Cart (1953)
Betsy's Wedding (1955)
What Cabrillo Found (1958)
The Valentine Box (1966)

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Scholarly Works

The Betsy-Tacy Companion: A Biography of Maud Hart Lovelace, Sharla Scannell Whalen

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Audio/Video

Sorry, none available at this time.

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