During a career at the University of Delaware as the Elias Ahuja Professor of French and a specialist of 19th-century French literature and culture, Mary Donaldson-Evans published several books, including Medical Examinations and Madame Bovary at the Movies. Following her retirement, she reinvented herself as the author of memoirs and short fiction. Her creative works have been published by The Lowestoft Chronicle, The Literary Hatchet, Boomer Lit Magazine and others. Inspired by the discovery of a trove of letters exchanged by her parents during World War II, Behind the Lines is her first book-length non-academic project.