February 13, 2007 @ 2:27 pm | Filed under: Books
It’s almost hard for me to believe, now, that I grew up without Betsy Ray and her Deep Valley friends. I never heard of the Betsy-Tacy books until 1994, when I was a young staffer at HarperChildren’s, and the galleys for the reissues—the very editions that are now going out of print—began to float across my desk. You never saw a happier little coffee-fetcher than the girl I was, newly married and soon to be expecting baby Jane, sitting in my cubicle devouring those galleys and getting paid for it. Not paid a whole lot, mind you, but still.
Where had Betsy Ray been all my life? Clearly she was a kindred spirit of the likes of my beloved Anne and Laura. I loved her instantly and passionately, right down to her gap-toothed smile. My own dear mama has the same smile, and I could picture Betsy’s grin exactly. (I would have it too, but for the junior-high braces.)
I had taken that job because I wanted to write, and I hoped working in a publishing house would open some doors for me. (Happily, it did.) In the evenings I would go home to the bitsy three-room Queens apartment in which Scott and I began our married life, and the whole scene was so very Betsy-and-Joe I could hardly contain myself. Betsy’s bird print above her writing desk (Uncle Keith’s trunk) reminded me of the picture I’d hung on the wall beside our computer: a sepia-toned print of a stone doorway between a courtyard and a garden, taken at a monastery we’d passed through briefly on our honeymoon. That doorway spoke to me of all the possibilities that lay on the other side. Step through, it beckoned, and see what surprises await you down these paths.
Betsy would have understood just how I felt.
Even little tiny Betsy, the five-year-old or the ten-year-old: she knew all about the fun of discovering what lay over the Big Hill or alongside the downtown streets. Her cheery disposition, her impish sense of humor, her fierce loyalty, her quarrelsome streak—she was a real and whole person, and when I discovered I was expecting a baby, I couldn’t wait, couldn’t WAIT, to share Betsy with her. Oh, but what if she were a he? Well, then, his sister. Surely, surely, there were girls in my future, my own little Betsy and a Tacy and an Anne and a Jane-of-Lantern-Hill. Right? Right?
When the Lovelace reissues came out, I got to take copies home to lay in wait for the passel of children I hoped to have. And here they are, a passel indeed, and as diehard a bunch of Betsy-Tacy fans you’ll never see—except perhaps in the Edmisten house. And, um, the Cottage. And at Dumb Ox Academy. And okay, fine, in hundreds of other homes around the world.
But hundreds of homes is not enough, not enough to generate new print runs in a world of bottom-lines. And so we’re in danger of having to say bye-bye Betsy. Will the day come when my daughters fight over who gets to have mom’s collection? [Updated April 2010: When this post was written, several of the Betsy-Tacy and Deep Valley titles were out of print. Happily, HarperPerennial has brought many of them back to us in beautiful new editions.]
There’s one book I won’t let them fight over. I bought a bunch of copies just in case it, too, disappears, as will likely be the case one of these days. Maud Hart Lovelace’s most beautiful novel, Emily of Deep Valley, takes place in the same Minnesota village as the Betsy-Tacy books, and indeed Betsy makes a cameo appearance. Emily wasn’t part of the original relaunch plan, and when I left my job at HarperCollins to stay home with the due-any-minute Baby Who Would Be Jane, I did so with a photocopy of Harper’s library copy of Emily of Deep Valley in my backpack—a gift from one of the editors on the next floor.
Two years later the same editor sent me, triumphantly, an actual book. She’d been successful in lobbying for the reissue of Emily of Deep Valley, and I could kiss her for it. If you haven’t read this book, oh what a treat you are in for. Emily is the kind of character we don’t often see in these days of “you have to do what’s right for you.” What seems “right” for Emily, devoted scholar, is a college education like the rest of her high-school chums. But she lives with a very elderly grandfather, and somehow, somehow, she can’t bring herself to leave him alone. That, her conscience whispers, wouldn’t be right.
Sometimes, you see, “right for you” isn’t the same as just plain Right.
Doing the real right thing, Emily finds, is often the hardest thing. She also finds out that the Right Thing can be like a doorway, and when you step through it, you find beauty on the other side, beauty in places you never knew existed.
That’s why I have a stack of Emily of Deep Valley tucked away for my children. She mustn’t disappear, this strong and gentle young woman who understands that love means sacrifice and cheerfulness, and the kind of love that cheerfully sacrifices blesses the giver a hundredfold. I can’t think of a finer role model for my young brood—not even Betsy or Anne or Laura.
The Betsy-Tacy books, in chronological order
The early years:
Betsy-Tacy
Betsy-Tacy and Tib
Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill
Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown
Companion title:
Winona’s Pony Cart
The high-school books:
Heaven to Betsy
Betsy in Spite of Herself
Betsy Was a Junior
Betsy and Joe
After high school:
Betsy and the Great World
Betsy’s Wedding
Companion titles:
Carney’s House Party
Emily of Deep Valley
Related posts:
Heaven to Betsy! High-school-and-beyond books being reissued! (Sept 2009)
Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill
Betsy-Tacy, Emily of Deep Valley, Maud Hart Lovelace
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It’s funny you mention Anne, Emily, Laura and Betsy as your literary role models. Some times reading this blog feels strongly reminiscent of reading Little Women for the first time. Especially the first half of the book.
Posted on February 13th, 2007 at 2:47 pmWell, I am definitely an Alcott enthusiast–I really think Little Men helped shape me into the homeschooler I turned out to be. I used to write stories in which I was a student at Plumfield!
Posted on February 13th, 2007 at 2:51 pmMy wife and I just finished reading Little Women out loud to each other. It is such a good book. I know my daughters will love it when they are old enough.
Posted on February 13th, 2007 at 4:37 pmThanks for the tip, Lissa. We have loved the Betsy-Tacy books but are closer to the beginning of the series. It is hard for me to believe, looking at my overflowing book shelves, that I alone am not able to support these publishing companies.
A tip for your readers-Heaven to Betsy is available at Rainbow Resource.
Posted on February 13th, 2007 at 4:41 pmMy husband is going to forbid me to keep reading your blog if I keep going out and ordering bunches of books online after I read!
Thanks for the heads-up. I’ve ordered the first five, and will try to keep up with the rest to save for when the kids are old enough. (And to enjoy myself in the meantime – I’m sure I will since I love most of the other books you talk about.)
Posted on February 13th, 2007 at 5:36 pmMy Amazon account… it weeps… so tired…
Posted on February 13th, 2007 at 5:52 pmWe read Betsy-Tacy and Tib, but I didn’t know she wrote stories for older girls. How exciting!
I’m going to go broke with all these books going out of print! Thank you, Lissa, for the heads up. Back to Amazon.
Posted on February 13th, 2007 at 8:52 pmJust when I was about to give up my credit card for Lent!
I would love to hear from you and your readers about other “must own” children’s classics, come join the conversation at
http://wesixandthecity.blogspot.com/
Posted on February 14th, 2007 at 7:24 amI am glad that I have so many of those old books already since it seems they are disappearing. I want my children to enjoy what I enjoyed.
Posted on February 15th, 2007 at 9:04 amI have had a Heaven to Betsy book since I was 14. It was my favorite book and I never knew there were more in the series. I’ll have to guard my book a little more carefully now. Thanks for the info!
Posted on February 15th, 2007 at 9:50 amIt sounds like I would have loved these as a child. How did I miss them? Thanks for the chronological list. It’s nice to know exactly what I have to look forward to!
Posted on February 25th, 2007 at 12:43 pmI just started a book club for 3rd grade girls at my daughter’s school. Yesterday was our first meeting and Betsy-Tacy was our first book. We loved it! We decided to continue next month with Betsy, Tacy and Tib.
Posted on February 26th, 2007 at 8:13 amI’ve actually never read Little Men, but I’m starting to learn a little more about L’s father, Amos Bronson Alcott. I think some of the ideas about education that came through in LW were based on Bronson’s philosophies.
Envisioning a meeting between Charlotte Mason and Bronson Alcott gives me the giggles.
Posted on March 1st, 2007 at 3:27 pmBetsy-Tacy News and More — Here in the Bonny Glen says:
[...] Here’s a post I wrote about my love for the Betsy-Tacy books, especially the (related, but not part of the main B-T series) moving and thoughtful Emily of Deep Valley. [...]
Posted on June 12th, 2009 at 1:52 pmBetsy-Tacy Convert Week — Here in the Bonny Glen says:
[...] (Remember how I wept when they began going out of print?) [...]
Posted on August 28th, 2009 at 7:20 amBetsy-Tacy Converts — Here in the Bonny Glen says:
[...] How I met Betsy Ray and her Crowd. [...]
Posted on September 3rd, 2009 at 12:47 pmI think someone’s still printing them?
http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Betsy-Spite-Herself-P-S/dp/0061794694/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252024305&sr=8-1
Posted on September 3rd, 2009 at 4:33 pmYes, these are the reissues I’ve been so excited about. This post is an older one (2007) and at that time the high-school books were going out of print. They’re coming back now, this very month, and I am super-excited!
Posted on September 3rd, 2009 at 4:51 pmBetsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill — Here in the Bonny Glen says:
[...] This week I reread my favorite of the “young” Betsy books. (The series divides neatly into the young books—the first four titles, during which Betsy grows from age 5 to 12—and the older books, one for each year of high school, plus Betsy’s year abroad, and the year of her wedding. There are also a few related titles: Winona’s Pony Cart, another “young” book, and two older ones: Carney’s House Party and Emily of Deep Valley, which you know I adore.) [...]
Posted on September 22nd, 2009 at 7:17 pmVery Big Betsy-Tacy News — Here in the Bonny Glen says:
[...] know how much this thrills me. I love Emily so much I actually bought four copies of the last printing to squirrel away for my daughters, just in case [...]
Posted on January 13th, 2010 at 9:50 amTruly, Maudly, Deeply — Here in the Bonny Glen says:
[...] Emily of Deep Valley [...]
Posted on May 4th, 2010 at 8:19 am