According to the Pattern (26 page)

Every once in awhile, a writer comes along who not only speaks to her own generation and to generations to come, but who also inspires and motivates her audience to become better, enhanced, more complete people. Grace Livingston Hill is one of those writers.

A pioneer in the inspirational literature movement, Grace Livingston Hill was born to a family of writers and arrived on earth already primed to take her place in the literary world. A Wellsville, New York native, she was born in 1865 to Charles Montgomery Livingston, a Presbyterian minister, and his wife, Marcia Macdonald Livingston. Born the day after Abraham Lincoln died, Grace grew up in an unstable world, making her writings about redemption, strong young Christian women, and the triumph of good over evil even more inspiring, relevant, and heartening.

The America Grace Livingston Hill was born into was a volatile place, one that had just undergone a fierce and soul-shattering war and had witnessed the violent death of a beloved president. While Grace was raised far from the aftermath of the war and the action of Reconstruction,
Wellsville, New York, like everywhere in the country, could still feel the aftereffects of the war that had almost ruptured a nation. Thankfully, Grace grew up in a stable, loving Christian family, who was able to insulate her from the instability of postwar America. The family spent time in upstate New York and Florida, giving Grace a wide worldview in which to develop her eventual novels and short stories.

Grace was encouraged in her writing from the time she was very young. Her father and mother were both writers and both often published in Grace’s aunt’s publication, The Pansy. Grace’s mother, Marcia Macdonald Livingston, even wrote a few of her own books. Grace’s aunt, Isabella Macdonald Alden, was even more prolific. Besides The Pansy, Alden wrote many works of Christian literature, eventually publishing almost twice as many books as her famous young niece! Assorted other family members, from Grace’s cousins and uncles to her own children, also dabbled in the literary world. The Hill household was a very fruitful place for a young writer to nurture her talent, and her extended family cooperated and help Grace foster her burgeoning gift. When she was still a child, Grace was surprised by one of her aunts with a beautifully illustrated and bound copy of one of Grace’s stories, and it is said that this experience inspired Grace to continue with her writing and hone her skills.

Grace began publishing her works and receiving compensation in her early 20s. Some of her books were published under her nom de plume Marcia Macdonald, her mother’s maiden name. Grace’s novels frequently focused on young Christian female heroines, who related strong moral messages and helped to give order to a world that seemed more confusing and irreverent by the day. These writings were important in the late twentieth century, as this seemed to many to be a time in which old standbys and lifestyles were no longer guaranteed. Grace adored writing, but even her early works were not solely labors of love. Her first novel, A Chautauqua Idyll, was written to get money for a vacation for her family. Grace’s life and writing continued along this pattern; while she continued to write about subjects dear to her heart, writing became more and more of a financial necessity, especially as both she and her parents progressed in age.

In 1892, Grace married a young minister named Franklin Hill, with whom she had two daughters. The family relocated to
Pennsylvania, further widening Grace’s horizons, and her marriage allowed Grace to continually explore the message of God’s salvation through Jesus Christ and helped her to develop her own spirituality in an even deeper way. As she built a family of her own and raised her children, Grace continued to use her talents to evangelize and spread the message of Christianity through her ever-more popular writings. Her novels, short stories, and magazine articles were gobbled up by a spiritually hungry public longing for a message of stability and of good winning out over evil. The romantic element of her writing certainly didn’t hurt sales, either!

Toward the end of the twentieth century, tragedy struck; Grace’s husband, Frank, died in 1899, and her father passed away soon after in 1900. Suddenly, Grace’s writing became even more necessary to maintain the finances of she and those she held dear. Luckily, the public was ready and willing to consume the literature she was offering. Grace became increasingly prolific around the turn of the century, publishing nine books in the first decade of the twentieth century and three books in 1903 alone! Her immense popularity allowed her to keep publishing, and she was able to continually guide her readers towards her ultimate message: the importance of salvation through Jesus Christ. While she was winning the hearts and minds of readers, her books had a tremendous impact on the more economic side of the equation as well. Grace Livingston Hill almost single-handedly invented the modern Christian romance novel, fusing elements of real-world practicality and romance with a larger message of Christian spirituality, in the process creating an entirely new literary marketing genre.

Most of Grace Livingston Hill’s novels consist of a mixture of both spiritual and practical advice. Although her writings all contain either a Gospel subtext or an overt Christian message, most also feature young women striking out on their own and becoming independent. Grace’s novels not only provide religious guidance, but also offer counseling on more practical, down to earth activities like cooking, housekeeping, interior decorating, and even fashion! This blend of practicality and morality is what many believe led to her popularity; although for awhile, her publishers suggested she tone down the spiritual aspect of her writings, many readers were drawn in by the seeming realism and common sense of her more practical suggestions, only to be transformed by the underlying Gospel message of her novels.

Grace overcame the deaths of her husband and her father by marrying, in 1904, a church organist named Flavius Josephus Lutz, who was more than a decade her junior. This would be marked as a poor decision that marred her life. It soon became clear that F.J. Lutz was not exactly marriage material, and although they never divorced, Grace stopped using his name and they parted ways. Lutz left and never returned, leaving Grace free to pursue her original love of writing.

Grace used the unhappy marriage as fodder for another novel, Blue Ruin, and she continued on producing novels and short stories at a breathtaking clip. She outpaced herself in the second decade of the twentieth century, publishing an astounding 16 novels in the years between 1911 and 1919. This publishing rate reflected Grace’s colossal fame and popularity, among readers of both secular and Christian bents. In the 1920s, she set a new record for herself by publishing 20 books – an average of nearly two per year! Readers made their love for her stories clear, and Grace Livingston Hill continued to use events from her own life, from current events, and from her personal faith in Jesus Christ to inspire her to write more beloved stories and novels.

The 1930s were a time of great literary output for Grace. She used the backdrop of the Great Depression to construct stories of characters who were materially poor but spiritually rich, churning out over 40 books in that decade. Especially in such a time of great despair, people were in need of soothing words, of comfort, of reassurance in higher things, and Grace filled that gap with her depictions of noble, moral, upstanding Christian heroes and heroines. Following a tradition of providing timely and encouraging narratives in times of crisis, Grace soldiered on, making the Great Depression a little less bleak to her readers by imparting words of wisdom and offering stories of moral and spiritual uplift.

Her publishing rate did not slack as she reached the twilight of her life, for in the 1940s, the last decade of her life, Grace turned out nearly 20 new novels and books of short stories. She died in 1947, and two of her books were published posthumously – Mary Arden, a novel which her daughter, Ruth, finished, and Miss Lavinia’s Call, a short story collection. Grace’s memory lives on not only through her literature, but through her descendants. All four of her grandchildren followed a godly path and pursued careers in missionary work and pastoral leadership. 

Though she is no longer with us, Grace Livingston Hill continues to inspire a new generation of readers through the printed page and her immortal words. It is a rare writer indeed who can attract an entirely new readership over half a century after her death, but Grace Livingston Hill falls into that class of writers. Today, her works continue to be read, not only as beloved old favorites by those who grew up with her, but as new discoveries by readers young and old today. Her books remain in circulation for a new century to read her tales of good and evil, of sin and redemption, of the power and love of Jesus Christ. This trailblazer in Christian literature would probably prefer to be remembered as God’s instrument, rather than as a successful writer who received worldly fame. In the words of her youngest grandson, Munce, Grace Livingston Hill would probably want her life to be summed up with one simple phrase: “Thank you, God, for using me.”