Maudie Mason

Maude (Maudie) Mason was the protagonist, and narrator, of the “Maudie stories” and “Maudie books” written by American authors Graeme and Sarah Lorimer in the 1930s and ’40s, and of the radio show “Maudie’s Diary”, which aired in 1941-42. The stories, which featured romantic schemes, contemporary slang, and witty banter, revolved around the adventures, tribulations, loves, and losses of an American teenage girl.

Maudie’s full name is Maude Worthington Benevolence Mason, but she keeps that a secret because “even I could never live it down.” She lives in or near Philadelphia with her parents and—for a while—her older sister, Sylvia. In Men Are Like Street Cars, she is sixteen. In Stag Line, she is seventeen. She is eighteen in Heart Specialist, “practically a grown-up”, and remembers being “a naïve child of sixteen.” She is 18 or 19and anticipates her next birthday (in May) in First Love, Farewell. Many young adults come into Maudie’s life, but the most constant presence is her friend, David (Davy) Dillon, with whom there are recurring romantic possibilities; she strings him along, but seems to settle on him more seriously late in the series. She has a comfortable upper-middle class life, and spends much of her time in romantic schemes and manipulations, sometimes joined by such friends as Pauline. She says Davy has suspected her motives since she was 11.

Numerous facts about Maudie and her family are disclosed in the course of the series, some of them showing the inconsistency of a serial work. Maudie is blonde, and proud of it; she weighs 110 pounds (50 kg). Maudie’s friends include Alix (her best female friend), Julie Purviance, who “has just about as much brains as beauty” (not much), Pauline (Pauly) Howard, and Mary Brandt and her brother Bill. Maudie’s father is called variously Dick and Franklin. He is on the board (possibly the chair) of Memorial Hospital. Her mother’s name is not revealed. Maudie’s sister Sylvia marries Jerry, who is pointedly not a native Philadelphian.

Davy has an older sister, Ting. His car is nicknamed the Fallen Arch, and he manages his school boxing team. He later goes to “the university” (presumably Penn), where he manages the tennis team and is probably a year or two older than Maudie. Maudie has a cousin Joy from Baltimore, who visits and causes problems. Her other relatives include an Aunt Esther and Uncle Arthur in Philadelphia, and Aunts Rachel and Benevolence. Her godfather, “Uncle Ned” Chace, lives in Chicago after doing “something awful”, but redeems himself and reappears later.

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