In her own beautiful, simple words, Baroness Maria Augusta Trapp tells the dramatic story that inspired the classic American musical and film “The Sound of Music.” 8-page photo insert.

With nearly 1,500 Broadway performances, six Tony Awards, more than three million albums sold, and five Academy Awards, “The Sound of Music, ”based on the lives of Maria, the baron, and their singing children, is as familiar to most of us as our own family history. But much about the real-life woman and her family was left untold.

Here, Baroness Maria Augusta Trapp tells in her own beautiful, simple words the extraordinary story of her romance with the baron, their escape from Nazi-occupied Austria, and their life in America.

Now with photographs from the original edition.

Maria Augusta Kutschera was born on a train en route to Vienna on January 26, 1905. She was brought up by an elderly cousin when her mother died aged two. She experienced a lonely and very strict upbringing. It was during a visit to a church concert that her mind was changed when she heard the words of a well-known priest, Father Kronseder. Her meeting with him led to her entering a convent to become a nun. While she was devoted to the convent life, she was taken away from the outdoor activities she once thrived on. Her doctor, concerned that her health was failing, helped the nuns to decide to send Maria to the home of retired naval captain Georg Von Trapp, to be governess to his bedridden daughter. On November 26, 1927, Maria and Georg were married. She died in Vermont in 1987.