The tales her grandmother told her of pioneer life in Wisconsin became a strong connection to the family she never really knew, and in 1935, she turned them into the classic children’s novel, Caddie Woodlawn.

As a writer, Brink drew from these experiences. Despite the rocky start, it proved to be the beginning of a fifty-five-year marriage that produced two children, eight grandchildren, and numerous later descendants. In defiance, they wed at Raymond's family’s rustic vacation home in Wisconsin. Her aunt, who disapproved of the union, refused to allow the couple to marry in Moscow. Even her marriage to Raymond Brink in 1918 began turbulently. Without any siblings, the little girl grew up lonely, considering her pony to be her best friend. In 1904, Brink’s mother Henrietta committed suicide, leaving her young daughter to be raised by Brink's grandmother and two aunts. Watkins was murdered by a crazed assassin on the streets of her hometown, Moscow, Idaho.

Born in 1895, she was only four years old when her father died of consumption. The search for family connections permeated many of Brink’s books, owing, perhaps, to her own tumultuous family history. Back to family.Ĭarol Ryrie Brink based her novel on stories told by her maternal grandmother, Caroline Woodhouse Watkins, about her childhood. Drawn from the beloved Newbery Medal-winning book by Carol Ryrie Brink, the development of its musical stage adaptation by myself and Tom Shelton was both accidental and inevitable. Her tomboyish struggles with her strictly traditional mother and her devotion to her more indulgent father are at the heart of this coming-of-age tale. It tells the story of a year in the life of a young pioneer girl, growing up in Wisconsin. At its core, Caddie Woodlawn is about family.

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