Episco-what?

As a cradle Episcopalian, I grew up with almost everyone saying “Episco-what?” when I told them what religion I was. Imagine my surprise and delight when I was in seventh or eighth grade to discover in the school’s library a series of books featuring a girl my age who was an Episcopalian, too!

These delightful books by Maud Hart Lovelace have been in and out of print since their publication began in 1940. Betsy, her family and her friends live an idyllic life in fictional Deep Valley, Minnesota about 1900. It starts with Betsy’s fifth birthday and goes through her first few years of marriage. But while it’s an idyllic life, it also shares some of life’s hardships: disappointment, heartbreak, and death.

In the first four Betsy-Tacy (1940), Betsy-Tacy and Tib (1941), Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill (1942), and Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown (1943) Betsy attends the Baptist church while her friend Tib goes to the Episcopal church. These four books have usually been in print since their initial publication.

However, in the harder to find Heaven to Betsy (1945) Betsy and her older sister decide to become Episcopalians! In some of the wisest writing I’ve ever read Betsy’s father says of their decision,

“The important thing isn’t what church you want to join but whether you want to join a church at all.”

After more discussion he says,

“And we support the church. You have to think of that. Churches need the income just as a family does; and it is your duty to support your church if you join one. With more than money, too. A church needs members who take an active part in the church work. Mother and I don’t do as much as some, and some folks overdo it, in my opinion, but we try to carry our load. My point is that if you’re going to join a church, you want to be prepared to support it, both with money and time.

“But that’s just the beginning,” Mr. Ray went on, and sat straight in his chair. “It isn’t enough to go to church, and to support the church. The most important part of religion isn’t in any church. It’s down in your own heart. Religion is in your thoughts, and in the way you act from day to day, in the way you treat other people. It’s honesty, and unselfishness, and kindness. Especially kindness.”

I can pretty much say that everything I learned as a kid about faith, religion and the Episcopal church, I learned from Betsy Ray and her father, thanks to fellow Episcopalian Maud Hart Lovelace. (The change of religion was so controversial when it was released in 1945 that some libraries, such as the New York Public Library, banned it!)

On Sept. 29, 2009 HarperCollins in reissuing six of these out-of-print books in three volumes as part of their Harper Perennial Modern Classics:

• Heaven to Betsy (1945) and Betsy in Spite of Herself (1946) with a forward by Laura Lippman
• Betsy Was a Junior (1947) and Betsy and Joe (1948) with a forward by Meg Cabot
• Betsy and the Great World (1952) and Betsy's Wedding (1955) with a forward by Anna Quindlen

And finally, three very hard to find books set in Deep Valley (including my first-read and absolute favorite, Emily of Deep Valley) will be reissued Oct. 12, 2010 as Harper Perennial Modern Classics:

• Carney's House Party (1949) and Winona's Pony Cart (1953)
• Emily of Deep Valley (1950)

I hope that you find these books as delightful as I have over the past 30 years. I have worn out library copies, paperbacks, and hardbacks reading and rereading this series, and am delighted to have the chance to buy more copies to share with my friends and family, especially my church family.