"A slender, virginal young thing. Hair like black silk. Purplish-grey eyes, with violet shadows under them that always seemed darker and more alluring after Emily had sat up to some unholy and un-Elizabethan hour completing a story or working out the skeleton of a plot; scarlet lips with a Murray-like crease at the corners; ears with Puckish, slightly pointed tips. Perhaps it was the crease and the ears that made certain people think her something of a puss. An exquisite line of chin and neck; a smile with a trick in it; such a slow-blossoming thing with a radiance of fulfilment. And ankles that scandalous old Aunt Nancy Priest of Priest Pond commended. Faint stains of rose in her rounded cheeks that sometimes suddenly deepend to crimson. Very little could bring that transforming flush--a wind off the sea, a sudden glimpse of blue upland, a flame-red poppy, white sails going out of the harbor in the magic of morning, gulf-waters silver under the moon, a Wedgewood-blue columbine in the old orchard. Or a certain whistle in Lofty John's Bush." (Emily's Quest, chapter 1.)

Emily Byrd Starr was born on May 19, to Douglas Starr and Juliet Murray Starr. Her mother died when she was four, and her father died when she was eleven. She was taken to live at New Moon farm in Blair Water, where her aunts, Laura and Elizabeth Murray, lived with their cousin, James Murray (Cousin Jimmy). Emily's passion is writing stories and poetry, as well as keeping a journal and writing character sketches of the people around her. Though only half Murray, she possesses some of the Murray pride so well-known in Blair Water. Her pride and her writing affect her life in many ways, at many different times.

"He had a little, rosy, elfish face with a forked grey beard; his hair curled over his head in a most un-Murray-like mop of glossy brown; and his large, brown eyes were as kind and frank as a child's. He gave Emily a hearty handshake, though he looked askance at the lady across from him while doing it." (Emily of New Moon, chapter 3)

" 'Folks say I've never been quite right since--but they only say that because I'm a poet, and because nothing ever worries me. Poets are so scarce in Blair Water folks don't understand them, and most people worry so much, they think you're not right if you don't worry.' " (Emily of New Moon, chapter 7)

Cousin Jimmy lives at New Moon farm with Aunt Laura and Aunt Elizabeth. He accidentally fell into a well when he was a child--Elizabeth pushed him after he had done something to irritate her. He survived, but the accident was said to have made him "queer." He composes poetry in his head, but never writes it down, and recites it "when the spirit moves."

"Yes, this was Aunt Elizabeth. No doubt about that--and she had on a stiff, black satin dress, so stiff and rich that Emily felt sure it must be her very best. This pleased Emily. Whatever Aunt Elizabeth thought of her father, at least she had paid him the respect of her best dress. And Aunt Elizabeth was quite fine looking in a tall, thin, austere style, with clear-cut features and a massive coronet of iron-grey hair under her black lace cap. But her eyes, though steel-blue, were as cold as Aunt Ruth's, and her long thin mouth was compressed severely." (Emily of New Moon, chapter 3)

Elizabeth Murray is Emily's aunt, and "runs" New Moon Farm. She takes Emily in as a duty at first, and does not seem to care for her at all. Gradually Emily and Aunt Elizabeth come to an understand each other better, and though Aunt Elizabeth never loses her cold exterior completely, she does love Emily and no longer considers her an unpleasant duty.

"Aunt Laura did not look like any one else in the room. She was almost pretty, with her delicate features and the heavy coils of pale, sleek, fair hair, faintly greyed, pinned closely all around her head. But it was her eyes that won Emily. They were such round blue, blue eyes. One never quite got over the shock of their blueness. And when she spoke it was in a beautiful, soft voice." (Emily of New Moon, chapter 3)

Laura Murray, Emily's aunt, lives at New Moon farm. She, like Aunt Elizabeth, never married. When Emily first arrives, Aunt Laura is the only person who is kind to her, aside from Cousin Jimmy.