After attending high school in Detroit, Delos worked for the Courier News in Fargo, North Dakota, and the Daily News in Minneapolis. Then, in 1915, Delos began to work for his friend Harry B. Wakefield, city editor of the Minneapolis Tribune. He also freelanced at the Wakefield Publicity Bureau, which was run by Harry Wakefield’s wife, Lillian Hammons Wakefield.
Estate of Merian Kirchner
This photograph of Maud and Delos was taken on the porch of the Hart family home in Minneapolis.
As a model of a happy marriage Maud had the example of her parents, Stella and Tom Hart.
Estate of Merian Kirchner.
Estate of Merian Kirchner
Delos in uniform.
Estate of Merian Kirchner
Delos in uniform.
Barbara Carter and the Maud Hart Lovelace Society
Maud and Delos’ first apartment, 2400 Aldrich Avenue South, also known as the Bow Street Apartment.
Maud and Delos’ first home, 1109 West 25th Street, also known as the Canoe Place House.
Barbara Carter and the Maud Hart Lovelace Society
At this time, World War I was raging in Europe, and in 1917, the United States entered the war. Delos left the publicity bureau to join the First Officers Training Camp at Fort Snelling. Maud was hired to fill his position. She recalled that Mrs. Wakefield “told me to look through the collection of articles and materials to see the kind of thing they were doing. I remember coming across Delos’ name and saying, ‘Why, what name is this? It sounds like a valentine.’ Then I went on to read some of the things he had written and I said, ‘My, he certainly writes well.’” In April, perhaps sensing a good match, Mrs. Wakefield invited Maud, her little sister, Helen, and Delos to dinner. Maud remembered: “Delos and I were seated across from each other and we kept eyeing each other. I remember Helen walked home and then Delos and I walked and walked, around the lakes, and talked and talked—it was practically dawn before we reached my home.” Seven months later, Maud and Delos were married at the Hart family home, on Thanksgiving Day, November 29, 1917.
After a three-day honeymoon, Delos had to report to Camp Dodge near Des Moines, Iowa. Soon afterward, he was sent overseas to France, where he served as a second lieutenant in the 339th machine gun battalion. The war ended on November 11, 1918, and after a four-month-long wait for space on a troopship home, Delos was able to return home to Maud—and the two began their long and happy life together.
Although the beginning of their relationship was very different from Betsy and Joe’s, many of the events in Betsy’s Wedding were based on Maud and Delos’ early life together. Maud commented that “all the early housekeeping experiences are actual.” Maud was in charge of the household budget—it was her task to keep “the Budget Book” (now in the collection of the Minnesota Valley Regional Library). In addition to payments for groceries and other expenses, the book also contains Maud’s housekeeping plan:
Monday: cleaning, icebox, breakbox, mending.
Tuesday: cleaning, kitchen, white enamel, wood work, silver.
Wednesday: [no entry]
Thursday: [alternately] cleaning, kitchen floor, drawers and closets, [or] shampoo.
Friday: cleaning, plate rail, wainscotting, shelves, white furniture, [and] ironing.
Saturday: cleaning, bathroom floor, baking.
Apparently, Maud was just as determined as Betsy is to be a good housekeeper.
Portraying Delos as Joe in this book gave Maud great pleasure—for the first time, she was writing about a period during which she knew him. Maud commented, “It was so pleasant for me to have Delos really and honestly in the picture. I had always tried, in the earlier books, to have Joe walk and talk and behave like Delos, but as one of my friends said to me about Betsy’s Wedding, Delos walks right off the pages.”
Estate of Merian Kirchner
This photo was taken in late 1924, during Maud’s first pregnancy. Sadly, the baby died soon after birth.
Merian, the Lovelaces’ second child, was born in 1931. She shows a remarkable resemblance to Delos in this photo.
Estate of Merian Kirchner
After the publication of Betsy’s Wedding in 1955, Maud was urged by her readers to write another Betsy-Tacy book. She remarked: “In Betsy’s Wedding, Betsy’s husband went off to the First World War and many letters have begged me to bring him safely home. The letters even offer me titles for another book, obviously in the friendly assumption that when a writer has found a title he is over the hump. Welcome Home, Joe! was suggested by one. Many have asked for Betsy’s Baby. And some have even hit upon the title I have selected myself, Betsy’s Bettina.” Although Maud did start to do some research, she never got around to writing Betsy’s Bettina. Perhaps this is because, as she wrote, “I have always felt that the last lines in Betsy’s Wedding were a perfect ending for the series.”
Maud and Delos spent their last happy years together in this house in Claremont, California.
Collection of Sharla Scannell Whalen
Whatever Happened To…
BICK KENNEY (Tacy) married Charley Kirch (Harry Kerr) in 1920. The couple had two sons. Bick and Maud remained lifelong friends—in 1968 they traveled to Europe together, and even visited Madrid, home of the King of Spain.
MIDGE GERLACH (Tib) married Charles Harris (Jack Dunhill) in 1918. She was reunited with Maud and Bick for Mankato’s Betsy-Tacy Day celebration in 1961.
KATHLEEN HART (Julia), Maud’s older sister, was married twice—first to Eugene Bibb (the couple later divorced), then to Frohman Foster (Paige). Kathleen became an opera singer and later taught music.
HELEN HART (Margaret), Maud’s younger sister, married Frank Fowler (Clay Dawson), whom she met in her high school cafeteria, in 1924. Although they had no children of their own, they took in several foster children and adopted one. Helen worked as a librarian in Minneapolis.
Collection of Millicent Steiner
Like his fictional counterpart, Cab, Jab Lloyd got married on the same day as Maud.
This photo of Helen Hart was probably taken in the spring of 1917, the year she graduated from high school.
Minnesota Valley Regional Library
MARION WILLARD (Carney) married Bill Everett (Sam Hutchinson) in 1919. They had three children and lived in Minneapolis. After the publication of Heaven to Betsy in 1945, Marion commented: “I felt rather foolish at first, having been made a character in the book, but then excited high school girls began to approach me and ask, ‘Are you really Carney?’ Then I naturally became very proud.”
JAB LLOYD (Cab) really was married on the same day as Maud. He and his wife had two sons and a daughter. After living in different parts of the Midwest, the Lloyds returned to Mankato, where Jab started his own lumber business.
ELEANOR JOHNSON (Winona II) married PAUL FORD (Dennie). They lived in Minnesota and had two sons.
TOM FOX (Tom Slade) attended West Point and pursued a career in the military.
RUPERT B. ANDREWS (Larry Humphreys) and HELMUS W. ANDREWS (Herbert Humphreys) both graduated from Stanford University in 1914. Rupert became an engineer, married, and had two children. Helmus earned a law degree but then decided he did not want to be an attorney. Instead, he set up business as a produce broker in San Diego. He married and had one daughter.
About the Author
MAUD HART LOVELACE (1892–1980) based her Betsy-Tacy series on her own childhood. Her series still boasts legions of fans, many of whom are members of the Betsy-Tacy Society, a national organization based in Mankato, Minnesota.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
The Betsy-Tacy Books
Book 1: Betsy-Tacy
Book 2: Betsy-Tacy and Tib
Book 3: Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill
Book 4: Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown
Book 5: Heaven to Betsy
Book 6: Betsy in Spite of Herself
Book 7: Betsy Was a Junior
Book 8: Betsy and Joe
Book 9: Betsy and the Great World
Book 10: Betsy’s Wedding
The Deep Valley Books
Winona’s Pony Cart
Carney’s House Party
Emily of Deep Valley
Cover design by Robin Bilardello
Cover and spine illustrations by Vera Neville from the books’ original publication
Copyright
BETSY AND THE GREAT WORLD. Copyright © 1952 by Maud Hart Lovelace. Copyright © renewed 1980 by Merian L. Kirchner. BETSY’S WEDDING. Copyright © 1955 by Maud Hart Lovelace. Copyright © renewed 1983 by Merian L. Kirchner. Foreword copyright © 1993 by Anna Quindlen. “Maud Hart Lovelace and Her World” (adapted from The Betsy-Tacy Companion: A Biography of Maud Hart Lovelace by Sharla Scannell Whalen) copyright © 2000 by HarperCollins Publishers Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Betsy and the Great World was first published in 1952 by Thomas Y. Crowell Company. First Harper Trophy edition published 1996.
Betsy’s Wedding was first published in 1955 by Thomas Y. Crowell Company. First Harper Trophy edition published 1996.
FIRST HARPER PERENNIAL MODERN CLASSICS EDITION PUBLISHED 2009.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-06-179513-8
EPub Edition © MAY 2011 ISBN: 978-0-06-199954-3
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