Marcia Schuyler was a family story that
Grace adapted for her first big-selling book. Her family told her that she
should visit her elderly aunt to learn of the details, and Grace spent time
with her, enthralled by the tale of a young girl taking her errant sister's
place as the bride in a wedding!
"Surely not since the days when Jacob served
seven years for Rachel and then lifted the bridal veil to look upon the face
of her sister, Leah, [Genesis 29:16-30] walked there a sadder bridegroom on
this than David Spafford walked that day." pg. 67
But could David Spafford ever love Marcia, who he saw as a "little
sister," as he had loved Kate?
"I will care for her as I would care for my own
sister." —David, pg. 77
Was Grace
using real names? There are Spaffords and Schuylers in the family tree!
In fact, Grace's Grandmother (also Pansy's mother) was Myra Spafford... I
wonder....
As for the illustrations, she was reminded by her family that there was an
artist in the family, a "cousin-in-law" named
Edward Lamson Henry. He was
married to Frances Livingston Wells Henry, and Grace's father Charles
performed their wedding ceremony.
Grace asked for cousin Edward's help, and he gave her several paintings to use as
illustrations. In the Lippincott editions of Marcia Schuyler, the paintings were
in "tint", but in subsequent editions, they were reprinted in
black-and-white. Both have a pasted-on picture on the front cover, the same
as the frontispiece.
I recently found a fourth edition with six paintings, plus I have a Grosset & Dunlap
sixth edition (at left) with
four
black-and-white paintings. Many later editions did not have the
illustrations at all.
But have you read the rest of the trilogy?
After Marcia
Schuyler, read Phoebe Dean, and then read Miranda. Both continue the tale of other
characters in the story!
