Originally published in 1922 by Charles Scribner’s and edited by the well known editor, Maxwell Perkins, The Love Legend was well received as a first novel. Four sisters living in the Lakeshore section of Chicago in the 1920s must each come to terms with the love legend, imparted by their widowed mother over the years: That every girl who is good, sweet, and pure will be sought by a Prince Charming who will bring love and happiness forever after. For each sister the legend has a different meaning; and with each, as suitors come and sometimes go, fate plays a different game. F. Scott Fitzgerald, who knew the author reviewed the book favorably in the Saturday Review: "Easily the best picture of Chicago since "Sister Carrie...it is honest, well written...and thoroughly alive." The NY Times reviewed The Love Legend as well: "...a lively colorful tale....a considerable sense of humor....many sterling good qualities shown by this book." Woodward Boyd is a pseudonym for Margaret Woodward Smith Shane, at the time the book was published she was married to author Thomas Boyd, later she remarried another writer, Ted Shane. This book is not just a curiosity of the early modern 20th century, though it is clearly of its place and time. It’s well enough written to stand on its own, outside of the past, ready to be rediscovered by modern readers. Includes a wonderful introduction by the novelist Caroline Leavitt, author of Girls in Trouble.
