The Trail of Conflict

<p>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.</p><p> </p><p>The majority of Loring's books are highly romantic mysteries that focus on a young independent woman with courage and ideals who finds herself in a tricky situation relies on the help of a strong handsome man and ends up with him at the end of the story. Beyond romance and mystery her books also explore a selection of topics including marriage love the work ethic American patriotism freedom and optimism.</p><p> </p><p>She enjoyed painting pictures with words often describing the environment architecture dress food and physical features of characters in exacting and colorful detail. In the books published after she died a lot of the colorful description was left out. Another major difference in the books published before and after the author's death is the characters' language a change for the better. In a lot of the early books too many of the characters use American slang which sounds like it came straight from the early talkies.</p><p> </p><p>Loring's work features several repeating motifs; among them are a heroine in her early 20s with dark hair a dark-haired lawyer or aspiring politician for a hero a secondary male predisposed to speaking in quotations a sleek bad guy a wise older woman who may or may not end up with a wise older man who has long been in love with her a flirtatious blond woman vying for the hero and New England as a setting or character trait: New England granite. Often-used plot devices in her novels include an orphaned character a marriage of convenience or contract a clandestine marriage and trouble coming from outside a well-knit social structure.  (wikipedia.org)</p>