Autumn Raines Lockett
Autumn has carried the story of Edelweiss since she was a little girl watching The Sound of Music and wondering about the von Trapp children's real first mother.
That question followed her for years, until a chance encounter on a cobblestone street in Salzburg in 2011 set everything in motion.
Edelweiss: A Novel is the result.
By day, Autumn guides future doctors and lawyers through admissions at the country's top medical and law schools. She helps them find the true version of their own story. Agatha never got that chance. Edelweiss is Autumn's attempt to give it to her.
She and her husband, Josh, are parents to five children — just two shy of the von Trapp brood!
Inspiration
Family
My children range in age from launched to pre-school. What does that spread look like in real life? Right now, I’m helping my oldest daughter plan her wedding and celebrating my youngest daughter’s coloring skills.
As I’ve raised and snuggled with and advocated for my children, my longing to know more Agatha von Trapp has intensified. She was the lifeblood of their home. She loved her children and her husband with such an intensity that we see her absence…everwhere.
My heart aches for everything she missed after scarlet fever took her.
Hawks
Ask me about hawks!
I’m always ready to tell the story of why they’ve always shown up at just the right time.
Favorite Reads
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
The Murmur of Bees by Sofía Segovia
In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Les Misérables (our son, Hugo, is named after Victor Hugo)
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (our son, Levin, is named for our favorite character)
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Overstory by Richard Powers
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
Beau Jest bt James Sherman
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
I could go on for 500 years.
And of course…Salzburg
Salzburg is more than a backdrop for Edelweiss. It's the city that started it all
From the same cobblestone streets and sweeping mountain views that inspired The Sound of Music, my own pilgrimage through Salzburg became the spark for Agatha von Linden's story. Here, side by side, are the scenes that captured the world's imagination, and the places that captured mine.
