Emilie Baker Loring

Emilie Baker Loring (September 5, 1866 – March 13, 1951) was an American romance novelist of the 20th century. She began writing in 1914 at the age of 50 and continued until her death after a long illness in 1951. After her death, her estate was managed by her sons, Selden M. and Robert M. Loring, who, based on a wealth of unfinished material they discovered, published twenty more books under her name until 1972. These books were ghost-written by Elinore Denniston.

Emilie Loring was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1866 to George M. Baker and Emily Frances (Boles) Baker. Her father was a playwright and publisher and her mother was a homemaker. Loring married Victor J. Loring, who was a lawyer. She died in Wellesley, Massachusetts on March 13, 1951. At the time of her death, Loring had sold more than a million copies of her first thirty books.

Loring's sister, Rachel Baker Gale, wrote a number of suffrage parlor plays.

Loring's son, Selden M. Loring was also an author. He wrote Young Buckskin Spy (Lantern Press, 1954) and Mighty Magic: An Almost-True Story of Pirates and Indians (Holliday House, 1964).

The papers of Emilie Loring are housed in the Department of Special Collections, Boston University, Mugar Memorial Library.

Loring's books are highly formulaic and focus on the "wholesome love" and independent spirit of women who still value homemaking and motherhood. There are no sexual situations in her novels, and most are tinged with action-adventure plots that stimulate the main characters' emotions and provide drama. It was not until the 1960s that her male characters were allowed to say "damn." The majority of her novels are not overtly religious, although a few of her novels do give reference to prayer to a greater or lesser degree, or have clergy as secondary characters, such as Gay Courage, published in 1936. Her novel Swift Water outlines her religious views most explicitly, as her main character undergoes a conversion of sorts. Most of her novels include heroines who come to rely on a higher power as part of their character development. Beyond romance, her books also explore a selection of topics including, but not limited to marriage, love, American patriotism, freedom, and optimism.

She enjoyed painting pictures with her words, often describing the environment, architecture, dress, and physical features of characters in exacting detail. Like time capsules, a great deal can be learned about the dress, etiquette, social classes, and political and economic conditions of the year each book was written in.

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