This abstract is from the cover of the book.
Mary Ellen Chase (1887—1973) is remembered for her many novels which celebrated the rugged beauty and strong people of her native state of Maine. Chase is also fondly and gratefully remembered by the scores of women she taught during her three-decade association with Smith College. Among her students were Sylvia Plath, Betty Friedman, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, all of whom have acknowledged the influence Chase had on their lives and careers, not only as a dynamic teacher of composition and literature, but also as a strong supporter of women's minds.
The latest voice to give tribute to her former teacher is Elienne Squire, who graduated from Smith in the class of 1948. Ms. Squire, of Boston, Massachusetts, has written A LANTERN IN THE WIND, the difinitive biography of Mary Ellen Chase. The book — which took five years to write demonstrates the devotion a good teacher can inspire in a student. It also introduces to a whole new generation of readers a writer who had an important place in the literary history of Maine, in American letters, and in feminist thought.
Chase was born and raised in Blue Hill, Maine. Her mother had been a teacher in the local academy, and her father was a judge on the circuit court. After graduating from the University of Maine in 1909, she accepted a position at the Hillside Home School in Wisconsin. It was there that she discovered a love for the profession; her ambition was to become a professor of English at the college level.
Another turning point in Chase's life came in 1914 when she was sent to Bozeman, Montana to recover from tuberculosis. During her seclusion in the Rocky Mountains, she wrote her first three books, and her writing career was born.
After receiving her masters and doctorate from the University of Minnesota, Chase went to Smith College, where she became a full professor within two years. She soon became a rising literary star as well, best known for her novels set in rural, coastal Maine. She eventually wrote and published 35 books. She was also successful as a lecturer, speaking with authority on many topics from culinary arts to the Bible.
Chase's teaching reflected an acute awareness of the inseparable relationship between learning and life. She was one of the stellar figures in the history of SMith College and an inspiration to those whose lives she touched. Elienne Squire's biography of this remarkable woman, illustrated with photographs, tells the story of an academic and literary life lived fully. It also discusses the strong rewarding personal relationship Chase shared with her long-time companion Eleanor Duckett. It is significant that A LANTERN IN THE WIND, a thorough biography and appreciation, is written by one of Mary Ellen Chase's former students. Like her other students, Squire remembers Chase not only for what she taught but for what she was, a woman of vision who made students more deeply aware of what they possessed by opening the way to revelation.
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