Details

Title

My Home in the Field of Honour

Author

Huard, Frances Wilson
Huard, Charles

Publisher

George H. Doran Company

Place of Publication

New York

Collection

L.M. Montgomery Institute.

Donor

Donated by Donna Jane Campbell.

Note

While Montgomery only mentions Huard’s “My Home in the Field of Honour” once in her journal (highlighting its “charm” in contrast to Aldrich’s “Hilltop on the Marne”), details of the book and its author suggest countless reasons why Montgomery would have enjoyed it. Huard’s memoir shares stories of her experiences in France during the First World War. She shares vivid tales of the transformation of the French countryside and that of her home, a beloved chateau in Villiers, which became an improvised military hospital receiving refugees from nearby. She recounts her escape to Paris with her husband Charles Huard, and their eventual return home. A review of the book from 1916 says “The author has made use of an uncommon literary gift to write a story of actual experiences that brings before us the fearfulness of war without any effect of melodrama or superfluity of horror, and that expresses real emotion with sincerity and with artistic restraint.” In essence Huard shares stories of both the homefront and the frontlines alongside emotional descriptions of rebuilding a beloved home. Frances Huard was born in the US, daughter of Francis Wilson, comic actor and founder of Actor’s Equity Association. She married artist (and Baron) Charles Huard, whose sketches are included in this volume. The full text of the book can be read here. She followed this book with “My Home on the Field of Mercy” in 1917, and then with a highly successful North American lecture tour through the early 1920s. Despite the success of their work in their lifetimes, Frances and Charles are perhaps best memorialized as, surprisingly, collectors and preservers of historical French wallpaper. The Rhode Island School of Design’s museum includes the Huard’s remarkable collection of wallpaper samples, many of which were collected from ruined houses they visited on their travels through war-torn France. Another interesting connection between Montgomery and Frances Huard comes via none other than Mark Twain. Twains' famous review of "Anne of Green Gables"--which called her "the dearest and most moving and delightful child since the immortal Alice"--was sent to Montgomery in a note from Twain's secretary. The beginning of that note, housed in Archival & Special Collections at the University of Guelph, reads "Dear Miss Montgomery: Mr. Clemens [Twain] directs me to thank you for your charming book & says I may quote to you from his letter to Francis Wilson about it..." In other words, Twain's commentary on Montgomery was sent to Frances Huard's *father* years before she began writing.

Genre

novel

Type of Item

contemporaneous