Background
Brink was born and raised in Moscow, Idaho, in the Palouse region. Orphaned at age eight following her mother's suicide, Brink lived in Moscow with her widowed maternal grandmother and an unmarried aunt; the grandmother had grown up on a farm in Wisconsin. In a preface to the later edition of Caddie Woodlawn, the author said the books were partly based on the life of her grandmother, Caddie Woodhouse Watkins (1853–1940), and her siblings: elder sister Clara, elder brother Tom, younger brother Warren, younger sisters Henrietta and Minnie, and Baby Joe.
The house where her grandmother had lived is now a historical site, about 12 miles (19 km) south of Menomonie, Wisconsin.
Read more about this topic: Caddie Woodlawn
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)