The original cover of Betsy-Tacy, illustrated by Lois Lenski.
Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1940
In the story, Betsy thinks Tacy is calling names when she first introduces herself because her name is so unusual. (Maud first discovered the name “Tacy” in a colonial newspaper when she was doing research for another book.) We don’t know if this happened in real life, but it’s possible that a similar misunderstanding resulted when Bick told Maud her name, which is also a bit unusual. Bick Kenney’s niece explained the origin of the nickname: “Frances Kenney had very red hair as a child and was called ‘Brick.’ Not being old enough to pronounce it properly, she called herself ‘Bick.’” And Bick is the name she used throughout her life.
Maud seemed to recall the occasion of her fifth birthday very vividly, and much of the description of the party in the book was based on her memories. For example, she remembered that she wore a “checked silk [dress] in tan, rose, and cream,” like Betsy’s. And Bick really did bring Maud a little glass pitcher as a birthday gift. Although its gold-painted rim has now worn away, the pitcher can be seen today in the Maud Hart Lovelace wing of the Minnesota Valley Regional Library in Mankato, Minnesota.
This map of the Hill Street neighborhood by Lois Lenski was printed on the endpapers of early editions of the first four Betsy-Tacy books.
Maud Hart Lovelace Archives
Maud’s straight hair was curled for these photographs, taken for the occasion of her fifth birthday.
Lois Lenski probably referred to the photos when she drew Betsy in her special party dress.
In fact, Betsy and Tacy’s adventures throughout the book are based on Maud’s real childhood experiences. In an interview, Maud described some of the games she and Bick used to play, which will sound very familiar: “We used to color sand and put it in bottles and have sand stores and sell it. We cut our paper dolls out of the magazines. We dressed up in our mothers’ long skirts. We went on picnics.”
In 1897, there really was a bench on the hill at the top of the street where Maud and Bick ate their suppers, although it was gone by 1906 or 1907. But readers may be pleased to know that a memorial bench was placed there in 1989, and it is still there today—a testimony to the powerful effect of Maud’s writing, and in commemoration of a very special friendship.
Maud Hart Lovelace Archives
Maud (right) and Bick (left) were lifelong friends—here they are at age ten.
Maud Hart Lovelace’s Deep Valley by Julie A. Schrader
The glass pitcher that Bick gave to Maud for her fifth birthday is now on display at the public library in Mankato.
Julie A. Schrader
Maud lived with her family in this little house at 333 Center Street.
The Ray house, at 333 Hill Street, closely resembles Maud’s.
Maud Hart Lovelace Archives
Maud’s mother, Stella Palmer Hart, was a schoolteacher before her marriage to Tom Hart.
Maud Hart Lovelace Archives
Kathleen and Helen Hart, Maud’s sisters, the models for Julia and Margaret Ray.
Maud Hart Lovelace’s Deep Valley by Julie A. Schrader
Maud and her friends attended Pleasant Grove School, a redbrick building that was built in 1871.
Lois Lenski’s drawing of the school-house.
Maud once spoke of “the fresh exciting world in which children live” and said, “I do think I remember that better than most grown-ups.” Many generations of Betsy-Tacy fans would certainly agree!
About Betsy-Tacy and Tib
BETSY AND TACY first meet Tib Muller at the end of Betsy-Tacy, when the girls are six years old. In real life, however, Maud knew Marjorie Gerlach—or “Midge,” as she was called—before then, although they may not really have been friends yet, because they were so young. As Maud remarked: “I have heard from my mother that I had known [Midge] since we were in our baby carriages, for our mothers knew each other.” So perhaps it wasn’t until the girls were six that they first started to play together. But we do know that by the summer of 1900, when Maud, Bick, and Midge were eight years old, the three girls had become fast friends, just like their fictional counterparts at the beginning of Betsy-Tacy and Tib.
The original cover of Betsy-Tacy and Tib, illustrated by Lois Lenski.
Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1941
Maud and Bick were fascinated by Midge’s house, just as Betsy and Tacy are by Tib’s. Maud once wrote: “Bick and I discovered [Midge’s] chocolate-colored house with colored glass over the front door, which to us was a mansion of all glories.” Midge’s father, who was an architect, like Mr. Muller in the story, apparently designed the Gerlach house. But readers may be surprised to know that although Midge’s house was brown, and really did have a pane of colored glass over the front door, it never had a tower. Instead, it was the house behind Midge’s that had a tower, and it is likely this tower that inspired Maud to invent one for Tib’s house.
Maud Hart Lovelace’s Deep Valley by Julie A. Schrader
Maud and Bick were fascinated with Midge’s house, which stood at 503 Byron Street in Mankato.
Julie A. Schrader
Although Midge’s house didn’t really have a tower, Maud may have gotten her inspiration from this house, which stood behind Midge’s.
Lois Lenski’s drawing of Tib’s house
The Standard Historical and Pictorial Atlas and Gazetteer of Blue Earth County, MN, 1895
Henry Gerlach, Midge’s father, was an architect, like Mr. Muller.
While Midge’s house was a favorite place for indoor fun, the three girls loved to roam the Big Hill—which was really Prospect Heights—for outdoor fun. A Mankato neighbor once described Prospect Heights in much the same way Maud describes the Big Hill in the story: “It was a natural playground for all the children in our neighborhood. On the other side of the hill was a ravine with a small creek, and on the other side of the creek was Bunker Hill. On the hill and in the ravine, the wildflowers grew in abundance.” And there really was a house on the hill, where Anna Asplund lived with her family. Mrs. Asplund was the inspiration for the character Mrs. Ekstrom, who offers sugar cookies to the three hungry beggars at her door.
Many of the episodes in the book, including the begging episode, were based on real-life incidents. While describing a Thanksgiving dinner reunion with Bick, Maud reminisced: “We talked about old days and laughed very hard about the time we made Everything Pudding and cut off one another’s hair.” And an old friend of Maud’s remembered that “the street carnival was just as it is in the book, flying lady and all.” Maud also recalled that Bick played the part of the Flying Lady on the end of a seesaw in the Hart woodshed. Even the mishaps—such as when Bick yelled that she was falling off—are accurately depicted in the book.
Maud Hart Lovelace’s Deep Valley by Julie A. Schrader
Midge’s mother, Minnie Gerlach.
Of course, not everything in the book is based on real life. One interesting difference involves Midge’s family. Although Midge’s brothers, Henry and William, are fictionalized in the books as Freddie and Hobbie, her baby sister, Dorothy, never appears in the books at all. But Dorothy’s nickname will be familiar to readers—Maud uses her name for the character Aunt Dolly, who first appears in Betsy-Tacy and Tib.
At the end of Betsy-Tacy and Tib, the girls wonder what it would be like to be ten. “We won’t be going to balls, maybe,” Betsy says to Tib. “But we’ll have lots of fun, you and me and Tacy.” And we can guess that Maud, Bick, and Midge did too.
About Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill
BETSY AND TACY GO OVER THE BIG HILL was first published in 1942 by Thomas Y. Crowell Company. It was originally published as Over the Big Hill, but the publisher later decided to add the names “Betsy and Tacy” to the title so that it would appeal to fans of the previous books. But Maud had an entirely different title in mind at first, which the publisher didn’t like. She wanted to call it “Betsy-Tacy and Tib are Ten.” And the events i
n the story are based on Maud’s life at around the time she and her friends really did turn ten, in 1902.
In writing about her childhood so many years later, Maud didn’t depend on just her own memory to get the details right. She reread her diaries, wrote to friends in Mankato, and did a lot of other research to make sure that as much as possible was historically accurate. For example, not only did Maud, Bick, and Midge write to the King of Spain as Betsy, Tacy, and Tib do, but Alphonso the Thirteenth really was crowned the King of Spain on May 17, 1902, and it really was a Saturday, as it is in the book. It is this kind of attention to the very smallest detail that makes the books feel so true.
The original cover of Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, illustrated by Lois Lenski.
Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1942
Ken Berg Family
Midge Gerlach (“Tib”) in her accordion-pleated dress.
The illustrator, Lois Lenski, based many of her drawings on photographs—here, Tib looks just like the photo of Midge!
Maud Hart Lovelace Archives
Maud’s older sister, Kathleen Hart, loved to perform just as much as Julia Ray does in the book.
Readers may be curious to know if there really was a Syrian settlement in Mankato, Minnesota, at the turn of the last century. There was. It was called Tinkcomville after its founder, James Ray Tinkcom. Like Mr. Meecham in the story, Mr. Tinkcom came to Mankato from New York and in 1873 bought all the land in the valley. He called it Tinkcom’s Addition and sold parcels of land to a group of immigrants in the 1890s. (Although the immigrants called themselves Syrians, they were actually of Lebanese descent. At the end of the last century, Lebanon was part of Syria; it became a country in its own right in 1948.) And just like Betsy, Tacy, and Tib, Maud and her friends enjoyed visiting the friendly community, which seemed exotic to them. Maud wrote: “From spring to fall we children picnicked and roamed on the hills. We loved to invade Tinkcomville, fascinated by the colorful Syrian colony. There was a rumor which used to enthrall us that one Syrian child was a princess.”
Unfortunately, we can find no historical evidence of a Syrian princess in Mankato. So we don’t know if Maud, Bick, and Midge really did meet a little Syrian girl on the Big Hill or if they really did fight with their older sisters over who would be the Queen of Summer. But in the summer of 1902, there was an event that may have provided a model for Naifi’s patriotic coronation at the end of Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill. It was the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Mankato, and as she so often did, Maud put a real-life event to good use in her fiction.
Blue Earth County Historical Society
The character of Mr. Meecham was based on James Ray Tinkcom.
Maud, Bick, and Midge probably sighed over newspaper photos of the sixteen-year-old King of Spain like this one.
About Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown
BETSY AND TACY GO DOWNTOWN was published in 1943. Like Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, it was first published under a different title, Downtown. The publisher later decided to add the names “Betsy and Tacy” to the title so readers would know it was part of the growing series. The book is based on things that happened in 1904 and 1905, when Maud, Bick, and Midge were twelve years old. Maud recalled, “As we grew older we made more trips downtown”—just as Betsy, Tacy, and Tib do in the book.
Downtown Deep Valley is a fictional version of Maud’s hometown, Mankato. In the early 1900s, Mankato was “a thriving county seat” with a population of about eleven thousand people. Maud uses many of Mankato’s actual street names in the book. Front Street, Broad Street, and Second Street are all described in exact detail, as are the Melborn Hotel (really the Saulpaugh Hotel), the new Carnegie Library, and the Opera House.
We are introduced to several new characters in Downtown. Not surprisingly, they are all based on real people. Winona Root was based on Maud’s friend Beulah Hunt. Her father, Frank W. Hunt, ran a newspaper, and as Maud remembers: “Sometimes, if we were lucky, we went to the matinee at the Opera House; on passes, since Beulah’s father was the editor of the Free Press.” Mr. and Mrs. Poppy were based on Clarence and Roma Saulpaugh, who ran the Saulpaugh Hotel. Midge got a ride in one of the first autos to reach Mankato, just like Tib, although we don’t know if it was Mr. Saulpaugh’s. While writing Downtown, Maud wrote to a Mankato friend: “I would like to bring in Mr. Bennett … or Mr. Saulpaugh’s automobile… I feel sure it was about that date that Midge took her famous ride.” And Uncle Keith was based on Frank Palmer, her mother’s brother. He really did run away from home and join an opera troupe, but since Maud didn’t meet him until she was grown up, the touching reunion scene at the end of the book never took place in real life.
The original cover of Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown, illustrated by Lois Lenski.
Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1943
Maud Hart Lovelace’s Deep Valley by Julie A. Schrader
The “Melborn Hotel” was really the Saulpaugh Hotel, which once stood on the corner of Front Street at Main, in Mankato.
Maud Hart Lovelace’s Deep Valley by Julie A. Schrader
The Opera House
Blue Earth County Historical Society
Maud’s friend Beulah Hunt was the model for Winona Root. Beulah is shown here with her dog, Peter.
Maud Hart Lovelace Archives
Frank Palmer (“Uncle Keith”) with Stella Palmer Hart (“Mrs. Ray”).
Maud wrote many plays that she and her friends performed. She really did write one called The Repentance of Lady Clinton, which Maud and her friends performed in real life, although Betsy, Tacy, Tib, and Winona decide not to in the story. Maud remembers: “We gave The Repentance of Lady Clinton in Midge’s back parlor. I repented so hard and to such good effect that I made a little boy in the audience cry. We had to stop the show to soothe him.”
Maud Hart Lovelace’s Deep Valley by Julie A. Schrader
The character of Mr. Poppy was based on Clarence Saulpaugh…
… and Mrs. Poppy was based on Roma Saulpaugh.
Maud Hart Lovelace’s Deep Valley by Julie A. Schrader
The Saulpaughs in their auto…
… and the Poppys in their auto.
Maud Hart Lovelace’s Deep Valley by Julie A. Schrader
Mankato’s Carnegie Library opened its doors in 1904.
Lois Lenski’s drawing looks just like the photo.
Maud had always known what she wanted to do. “I cannot remember back to a year in which I did not consider myself to be a Writer, and the younger I was the bigger that capital ‘W,’” she wrote. “Back in Mankato, I wrote stories in notebooks and illustrated them with pictures cut from magazines. When I was ten my father, I hope at not too great expense, had printed a booklet of my earliest rhymes.” We don’t know if Maud wrote a story similar to “Flossie’s Accident,” but she did submit one of her early efforts to a magazine. Like “Flossie’s Accident,” it was “written on a brilliant pink paper … [but] never heard from.”
A prediction about Betsy appears on the last page of Downtown: “Some day in her maple or on Uncle Keith’s trunk, she would write something good.” Maud certainly did!
About Illustrator Lois Lenski
Lois Lenski
The Lois Lenski Carey Foundation Inc.
LOIS LENSKI was born on October 14, 1893, in Springfield, Ohio, the fourth of five children to Lutheran minister Richard C. H. Lenski and his wife, Marietta. When Lois was six, the family moved to Anna, Ohio, a place Lois remembered fondly as a “perfect child’s town… The most familiar sounds were the whistles of a train passing through, the clop-clop of horses’ hooves on the dirt streets, the barking of dogs, and the ringing of church bells”—a place very much like Betsy Ray’s Deep Valley, Minnesota.
As a child, Lois enjoyed reading, sewing, and drawing. After graduating from high school, Lois entered Ohio State University, where she majored in education but used all of her electives for art courses. Upon completing her degree in 1915, Lois refused a teaching
offer and instead traveled to New York City to study at the Art Students League in order to polish and perfect her technique. In the evenings, she worked at the School of Industrial Art as an assistant in the illustration class taught by artist and mural painter Arthur Covey. During this time, Lois worked on a set of nursery rhyme illustrations that were published by Platt and Munk as a children’s coloring book.
In 1921, Lois married Covey, a widower, and became stepmother to his children, Margaret and Laird. Lois found her time consumed with household chores—taking care of a large house, garden, and children—yet she continued to make time for her art. Carrying a sketchbook wherever she went, Lois drew the faces and figures of people she saw, and submitted many of these sketches to publishers, hoping to get hired as a book illustrator. Helen Dean Fish, an editor at Stokes, suggested that Lois write her own stories. Lois’s first book, Skipping Village, published by Stokes in 1927, was a fictionalized picture book of her own childhood.
After the birth of her son Stephen in 1929, Lois’s family soon moved to a 113-acre farm in Harwinton, Connecticut, which they named Greenacres. A small wooden building on the top of a hill became Lois’s studio, where she continued to write and illustrate picture books, the most popular of which was the Mr. Small series, including The Little Train and The Little Auto.
In the 1930s, Lois began to write longer historical fiction books for 8- to 12-year-old readers, such as Puritan Adventure and Indian Captive. Lois’s knack for capturing children’s expressions and movement, as well as her many collaborations with other authors, led to her being chosen to illustrate a new children’s book series in 1940—the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace. Lois created the pictures of Betsy and Tacy using photographs from Maud’s childhood. She also traveled to Mankato, Minnesota, to see the actual homes where Maud Hart and Frances Kenney had lived and drew a detailed map of the places in “Deep Valley,” which was included in early editions of Betsy-Tacy.