In memory of Elizabeth Mansfield

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Readers of Regency novels say that Elizabeth Mansfield was the heiress to the literary crown of Georgette Heyer, the high priestess of Regency novels. But Elizabeth only smiled at the appellation. After all, she was the writer who admitted, "I received a Master's degree in English lit, but I secretly read Georgette Heyer in the bathtub." She believed that the love story has been with us ever since people began telling stories, and it will continue to be with us until the world ends.

"I was born and grew up in New York City," said the freshfaced blonde, who was born on March 13, between the years of the Depression and World War II. "I teach freshman students in a local community college one day a week. I used to teach full-time, but now I have too many deadlines to meet. At the moment I'm teaching Jewish-American literature of the twentieth century. Writing is so quiet; I need to teach to get me but of the house arid talking," she added with a grin.

"It started with a prize," said Elizabeth, "The Irene Leache Memorial Award for Best Essay. Georgette Heyer had died the year before, and I noticed that she was given just a couple of paragraphs on the bottom of The New York Times' obituary page. I realized that the editor just didn't know who she was; if he had, he would have given her front-page attention. After all, many thousands of American women were faithful readers of her books. As a result I called my essay The Last Secret Vice. It was about romance fiction in general and Heyer in particular. When I won the competition-a college president who was as dignified, intellectual and unromantic as it is possible to be-said that the essay made him wish, for the first time in his life, to read a romance. -If an essay can do that,' he said, 'it deserves an award.'" Flushed with pride, and with the helpful friend's suggestion to "try a Regency novel too," an idea for a Regency began buzzing around in Elizabeth's head.

Paula Schwartz, who wrote under the pseudonym Elizabeth Mansfield, died from ovarian cancer on December 21, 2003 at 2:20 PM, at home, surrounded by family members. It was her wish that the online community not be informed of her illness until after her passing.

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