Emilie Loring
October 31, 2005Emilie Baker Loring was born about 1864 in Massachusetts. She sometimes wrote under the pseudonym Josephine Story. According to Reader’s Friend, Ms. Loring published 30 romance novels between 1922 and 1950, beginning with my favorite A Trail of Conflict. After her death in 1951, her two sons found a large amount of unfinished materials. Those materials were developed into 20 romantic novels, published between 1952 and 1972. Ms. Loring’’s publishing credits include two books as Josephine Story, a play as Emilie Loring and a handful of articles and short stories. The earliest date listed is 1914, when Ms. Loring was approximately 50 years old. The cover of a 1975 reprint of Bright Skies says over 34 million copies of Loring titles were in print at that time and touts Emilie Loring as America’s Bestselling Author of Romance. She seems to have been forgotten by the larger romance community in recent years but to me Emilie Loring is a dear friend – one who died 25 years before my birth.
My grandma introduced me to Emilie Loring when I was nine years old. I read all the Emilie Loring novels in Grandma’s collection over and over again while I was growing up. Those books were my refuge when things weren’t going well at home. They gave me a glimpse of another life and put a smile on my face. Words and phrases sometimes remind me of characters in her books and I often forget Grandma is the only person I know who has actually read the same stories. Last year, Grandma gave me her collection of Loring novels and the books became some of my most treasured possessions. I’ll share them with my daughters when they get older. In the meantime, I encourage all fans of romance to make Ms. Loring’s acquaintance.
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What a great piece! I’ve never read her — but I will now! Thanks for telling us about her.
I enjoy her book as well. They are innocent and sweet. I like how she not-so-subtly imbeds oldtime values in the books and I laugh at all the “Commie Plots” :).
I love her books. I have been reading them
over and over again since I was a teenager!!
I thought that I was the last remaining reader of Emilie Loring’s books! I came upon my first one in 1966 in France where I was studying at Grenoble University. I was 17 and I fell in love with her writing. Her descriptions of settings, particularly gardens, and clothing were very evocative of the era. Her stories are simple but the characters ab their behaviors still ring true, if perhaps softer and more refined than what we see now. I am glad to see that there are still some appreciative readers of this wonderful author out there.
I think I read my first Emilie Loring when I was about 10-12 years old. My Grandma had several and I devoured those. Then it was trips to the library to read more and then it was garage sales to start collecting my own set. I do have all fifty books in paperback and 6 or 8 in hardcover. I just started a reread of all of them. My best loved author. Thanks for this tribute to her!
I’m looking the book Emilie Loring wrote about a small boy that was adopted. There was a little white
dog in the story that looked like shreded coconut.
I want my granddaughter to read these wonderful books.
Linda Jenkins
lindajenkins@bbnp.com
You are looking for “We Ride the Gale!” I have a copy. Let me know if you are still looking.
I read my first Emilie Loring book, Where Beauty Dwells, when I was 15. I have read all of them several times and still enjoy them. I especially like the ones from the 1930’s. It’s interesting to see the United States of that era.
And I thought I was the only one who knew these books. I bought up all of the paperback and hardcover copies I could find from used book stores, libraries and garage sales. It’s been many years since I picked one up but I keep them safe as old friends from my youth. I will probably pick them up again someday and relive simpler days of old. Who knows–maybe tomorrow.
I’ve loved Emilie Loring’s books since my great-aunt Hazel would let me read them when I visited her in NC as a kid.
I’m trying to remember the one where the main female character helped an architect trying to sell his houses by decorating them (what we’d call staging today). Help!
Cat:
Has anyone told you yet?
The book you are looking for sounds one of my favorites: We Ride the Gale.
AJ
Actually,no, my mistake. It’s Throw Wide the Door.
I discovered her back in the 90’s when I was in high school and read all of her books I could find. I love her work – the themes of honesty, courage, patriotism, and loyalty are timeless and are needed today more than ever.
I am amazed and heartened by the number of young people who have stated their appreciation for Emilie Loring. With all of the “bodice buster” historical romance novels and the explicit sex novels, Loring’s books are a throwback to times when idealism, patriotism and honor still meant something. Like many of the persons who have left comments, I, too, started reading her books while in my early teens, and continue some fifty years later! I had wondered about the later novels, as the female characters did not seem to have the same strong resolve as those of earlier books. I read that they had been ‘ghosted’ by another person from notes Loring’s sons had found after her death.
I too have been reading Emilie Loring books since I was a teenager. She has always been my favorite author. I read a couple of “other” romance novels but hated the heroines. They weren’t the strong women that loved without compromise. I have steered my teenage girls from those kind of romances because I know there is something out there that is better. I got most of my Emilie Loring books from my mother. My favorite is Keepers of the Faith.
[…] romance author I remember getting handed routinely from librarians as a relatively young teen was Emilie Loring, which I didn’t mind at all to tell the truth. Her books were actively published from the […]
I have read Emilie Loring since traveling to and from college in the 1960’s. Found my first one in a bus station. Have collected most of them in paperbook. Just going through the collection today. Will probably started reading them again. They are always excellent.
Books do not get any better than Emilie Loring. My mom had collected a large number of Emilie Loring books and started me reading them when I was in Jr. High. Since then I have collected and read them all … numerous times. 🙂 It is so nice to know that every book can be trusted to share moral values, truth, patriotism, courage–things that we need today more than ever. I would recommend these books to anyone. Emilie Loring’s characters almost become friends you can visit time and again.
I love Emilie Loring! I stumbled upon her books when I was a teenager, I was at a huge book sale looking for books by Grace Livingston Hill and they had Emilie Loring Books mixed with the Grace L. Hill books. I ended up buying books from both authors and discovered how wonderful Emilie Loring is!! 🙂
I also thought I was the only person who read Emilie Loring. I started when I was a teenager and have read them countless times. I am crippled with a nerve disease right now and am rereading them all again. I am still looking for a few. They are the best.
My mother introduced me to Grace Livingston Hill. I introduced her to Emilie Loring. But what else is out there? Surely there are some good old fashion love stories buried somewhere, but these are the only two authors that I’ve stumbled upon. Any suggestions?
Try Essie Summers
Amazing to discover other E.L. fans after nearly 30 years of being familiar with her books. I discovered her books when in my 20’s during a troubled marriage. They were my refuge. I’ve read them on and off again through the years. I had thought I had “outgrown” them as my preference has been non-fiction books for the past 10-15 years. However, recently I’ve rediscovered them and once again am addicted. I guess once an E.L. fan, always an E.L. fan.
I started reading Emilie Loring as a teenager when an aunt gave me one, saying that I’d love it because “its so hysterically stupid, all those color descriptions, everything matches, it’s a hoot.” Well, I did love it, but I had to hide them from my sister and her friends because they all agreed with my aunt. I’ve been collecting them all this time and, last Christmas, my husband completed my collection for me, searching the internet for my last 9. So now I have them all and have started reading them again, in publication order. I’ve often wondered why the paperback numbered order is not the same as the publication date order. Does anyone know?
I guess that I didn’t make it clear that I did not agree with my aunt, that I did love the book she gave me (Lighted Windows), not for the reasons that she said but because it was a wonderful story told well with strong women with “old-fashioned” values that we could all use more of – I still amazed that I could recognize that at age 14 or 15!
I read all the Emilie Loring books I could get my hands on when I was 12 – 13 when a Catholic nun suggested them to the girls in her class. Would LOVE to read a bibliography of the author if anyone knows of one out there……..I love to know what makes an author start writing and why they choose this particular subject, plot, characters, etc. I’m trying to get her books again by InterLibrary Loan…….libraries don’t carry her books anymore.
Oops! Meant to say “I would love to read a Biography of Emily Loring if anyone knows of one out there……..”
My momma used to take me to the library “across the river” in Daytona Beach after they desegregated. It was nice and cozy and Momma felt we were safe there. It was mostly used by older people and they embraced us as we would roam the library troling for books. One of the ladies noticed how fast I read book (I was about 9) and she thought I should read “bigger” books and she introduced me to Emilie Loring and Grace Livingston Hill. I am currently collecting and re-reading them. Very comforting… and CLEAN!!!
Great fun to discover this site. I’d read so many of Mrs. Loring’s books while ages 9, 10, 11–only to discover her granddaughter Eve was in my grade-school class. Imagine how impressed I was!
The stories were lovely fun in an era when romantic innocence seemed almost real.
Haven’t thought of these books in years, although I do recall exactly where they were shelved in our branch library, of course. Perhaps I ought to reread one–‘Here Comes the Sun’ is the title that
comes to mind as one favorite.
My two favorites are Fair Tomorrow and There is Always Love.
I started reading Emilie Loring books while I was in high school and had always found them a comforting place to revisit. Hadn’t read one for years but just discovered The Trail of Conflict on Kindle and I’m enjoying it as much as I use to. Presently it’s the only one I see available but hopfully more will be available soon.
Jackie
Emilie Loring died a year before my birth and I read my first of her books at the age of ten from my mother’s small collection. By the time I was 29, I had collected almost all of her original thirty books; to date, I have 48 EL books. Her story titles alone are uplifting and inspiring. She and Georgette Heyer were my favorite authors. Through the years, I still re-read these books. Shortly after my husband’s death, I was asked what it was like being married for 34 years. My first thought was that those years were like a moment in my life when Love Came Laughing By.
Loved Emilie LOring since I was a teenager, also. Am looking for
one she wrote that had a young lady sent to live with her aunt, and
while walking one day discovered her father’s house (I believe there
were 4 brothers lived there), and whenever they weren’t home, she
went there and cleaned it and cooked meals, and they never knew who it was. I gave the book to my mother to read, and she lost it.
Does anyone know the title to that book??
Ms. McGill, you might be referring to “Honor Girl” by Grace Livingston Hill. Her mother dies and she’s sent to live with her aunt’s family. When she returns to her father’s house to retrieve a book she left there, she finds it a mess and stays to clean it. Eventually she goes to live with her father and two brothers and reforms them. Sweet story with great descriptions of food!
I will look for this book as soon as I get to library, and I can’t thank you enough for this information! I’ve been looking for about 30 years, and here I had the wrong author, although a few times I thought maybe it was Grace Livingston Hill, as I had a few of her books in my collection, too!! I think this is it. When I find it, I will respond again, AGAIN-Thankyou very, very much!! Even the librarians didn’t know of the book when I described it!
I am so glad to find other women who love Emilie Loring. I have almost all of them and have read them literally dozens of times. They are just the best!!!
Yes, she had the best imagination and clever writing. I have only read a few of her books,though. My late Mom received them off a neighbor years ago, and I was so happy to read them. And I do love to read any book I love, over again. It always seems different the second time! I am now reading “The Honor Girl” by Grace Livingston Hill, whom has the same style of writing. Love this book, read it many years ago, too!
I have read Emilie Loring books since Junior High School. I always gave her credit for helping me keep my ideals and standards high. I always took her words “Lips that touch liquor,will never touch mine” as a personal creed. Thank you, Emilie Loring, you’re my hero!
Emilie Loring’s the best. I, too, began reading her books as a young teenager. I first started reading the books when my pastor’s daughter who was also my best friend gave me one from her grandfather’s collection. He was still reading them in his later years. I have an extensive collection for re-reading pleasure.
I am a Emilie Loring fan and have bought many of her books in paperback. I am looking for the book where the young woman pretends to be married to get a job as an assistant where all the women fall in love with her nephew. Can’t remember the name of the book. Please help if you can. It began where the girl left on a train, the man who helped her get off later turned out to be the nephew. Thanks for help.
You are thinking of ” with this Ring” which is also my very favorite Emilie book. I have read all 50 in years gone past and have managed to find 46 – still missing 4 ; they are the best
Felt someone should continue this thread on Emilie Loring’s books in 2015. I discovered her paperbacks in a used book/antique store near our summer cabin and after the first few became hooked. Loving vintage, her descriptions of clothes and mannerisms of the 30’s, 40’s,and 50’s are divine! (I think the ghost rider did quite a fair job myself.) As other commenters have mentioned though, Ms. Loring’s patriotism and cherished character values are refreshing to read although they make me sentimental and sad. Fortunately for me this book store had a large collection which I promptly bought on subsequent visits for $1.09 each! It’s wonderful to have an author’s books that you can enjoy and find solace in time and time again! Viva la Emilie Loring!
I’m happy to “meet” fellow fans. Visit my website and blog for unique information about Emilie Loring. With the support of the Loring family, I have researched Emilie’s life for two decades. Her biography is nearly finished, and there is much to share. http://pattibender.com
[…] romance author I remember getting handed routinely from librarians as a relatively young teen was Emilie Loring, which I didn’t mind at all to tell the truth. Her books were actively published from the […]
[…] librarians as a relatively young teen was Emilie Loring. I didn’t mind at all to tell the truth. Her books were actively published from the 1920s-1970s. That’s a tad misleading, however, since she died in 1951. She wrote and published 30 novels […]