Finally, one day, in desperation, Maria excused herself and went to her room for an hour to scribble a few pages about her life story, hoping to prove once and for all she was no writer.

However, this displayed such natural writing talent that she reluctantly agreed to finish what she had started, and her jottings formed the basis of the first chapter of her memoirs.

[citation needed] Her book, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, was a best-seller.

The book describes the life of the von Trapp family, from their beginnings in Salzburg, Austria, to their adventures in America where they escaped from German-occupied Europe.

By the time the family left Austria in real life in 1938, two more children had been born and a third was on the way.