Face Toward the Spring

by Faith Baldwin

Faith Baldwin

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Contemporary

Hardcover

First published September 1, 1953

About the author

Faith Baldwin attended private academies and finishing schools, and in 1914-16 she lived in Dresden, Germany. She married Hugh H. Cuthrell in 1920, and the next year she published her first novel, Mavis of Green Hill. Although she often claimed she did not care for authorship, her steady stream of books belies that claim; over the next 56 years she published more than 85 books, more than 60 of them novels with such titles as Those Difficult Years (1925), The Office Wife (1930), Babs and Mary Lou (1931), District Nurse (1932), Manhattan Nights (1937), and He Married a Doctor (1944). Her last completed novel, Adam's Eden, appeared in 1977.

Typically, a Faith Baldwin book presents a highly simplified version of life among the wealthy. No matter what the difficulties, honour and goodness triumph, and hero and heroine are united. Evil, depravity, poverty, and sex found no place in her work, which she explicitly intended for the housewife and the working girl. The popularity of her writing was enormous. In 1936, in the midst of the Great Depression, she published five novels in magazine serial form and three earlier serials in volume form and saw four of her works made into motion pictures, for an income that year in excess of $315,000. She also wrote innumerable stories, articles, and newspaper columns, no less ephemeral than the novels.

Reviews

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This quiet little book of month-by-month seasonal essays is beautiful and moving. Every time I picked it up to read from it, it gave me something worthwhile to ponder and left me feeling uplifted. At first glance it may seem to be just an old-fashioned book of months but it is so much more. Written by a deep-thinking woman of faith it offers solace and hope in a world where we seldom take time to enjoy true beauty or wisdom, and it reminds me that truth is never out-dated.

This unassuming little volume earns a permanent place on my nightstand. Highest recommendation.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an admittedly unusual-for-me read -- a 1940s month-based book of essays by a Christian female writer. It wound up on my shelves many years ago as part of a box of vintage hardbacks bought at an estate sale, back when I had more time to follow that sort of pastime. I thought it was fiction until I picked it out at random to read. I enjoyed it more than I thought, which was a nice surprise. It might be that I am getting terribly close to "middle age," but the wise points she makes about life rang true to me despite 70+ years having passed since its publication.

[Nancy Noble · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had read many of Faith Baldwin's letters in my earlier years so when I came across this book I grabbed it off the shelves. What a wonderful book - so wise and lyrical. I really agreed with so many of her thoughts and ideas.

[Claudia Mundell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read both Hersey and Baldwin this week, and both resonate the work of Gladys Taber. In fact, Faith Baldwin was personal friends with and lived near Taber. One book published in late 60 and the other in mid 50s echo the same issues of today...fast cities, busy lives, change and upset in the world. It is somewhat comforting to know the feelings I have are not new...yet, also a downer thinking nothing changes. :)

[Bitsy]

1956