“After all, living is the greatest thing any of us have to do. Why not make an art of it?”—Emilie Loring
Emilie Loring is a name unfamiliar to most but once upon a time, the seasonal Blue Hill resident wrote 20th-century novels of romance and adventure that captured readers worldwide. Romantic comedies, mystery men, courageous women, and the happy endings of today draw a direct line to the entertaining prose of Emilie Loring’s romance novels.
Emilie Baker Loring’s novels sold a million copies during her lifetime and more than thirty-seven million in a dozen languages since her passing. Loring’s books brim with intricate plot twists, intense imagery, and page-turning excitement, setting her works apart from the drugstore novels of the early- to mid-twentieth century. Happy Landings: Emilie Loring’s Life, Writing, and Wisdom shares this best-selling author’s uplifting story for the first time. With never-before-published photographs, privileged access to the Loring family archives, and twenty years of meticulous research, Patti Bender reveals a woman who lived as she wrote, with intelligence, humor, and wisdom. This is a woman’s story in swiftly changing times for women; a charming story with little-known anecdotes about prominent authors and the story of a writer in the making, with advice and encouragement for aspiring authors.
After two decades of research and a lifetime of reading and re-reading her works, Patti Bender unexpectedly found herself the world’s expert on Emilie Loring. Bender left a thirty-year college teaching career to complete the author’s biography and pursue writing full-time. Her website, The Emilie Loring Collection (www.pattibender.com), is a gathering place for Emilie’s lifetime fans. A native of Tempe, Arizona, Bender earned a B.A. with summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors in English and history at Trinity University, an M.S. in leisure studies at the University of Illinois, and a Ph.D. in human motor control at the University of Southern California. She lives in Lawrence, Kansas.