Dreaming in Clay on the Coast of Mississippi

by Maurer, Christopher; Iglesias, Maria Estrella (CON); Anderson, Walter Inglis

• ISBN13: 9781604734591
• ISBN10: 1604734590
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-01
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Mississippi

Summary

Almost a century ago, Annette McConnell Anderson, a New Orleans society woman, vowed that her three sons would become artists. Turning her back on bourgeois life and abetted by her skeptical husband---a grain merchant---she bought twenty-eight acres of woodland on the Mississippi Sound. Beside a sleepy bayou, in the shade of towering pines and magnolias, she opened an art colony, one of the first of its kind in the South.Backed by his mother's passion for art, her oldest son Peter Anderson founded Shearwater Pottery. Yearning "to make Shearwater synonymous with perfection," he drew the entire family into his adventure. His brothers, "Mac" and Walter, made strange, wonderful pieces, though Walter Anderson eventually left the pottery studio to search for his own artistic path.Drawn by the exquisite work of Shearwater Pottery, the authors discover that painting, poetry, and storytelling---much of it by strong, unforgettable women---are still an essential part of the family's daily life. Intimate diaries, letters, and poems lead the reader into a stormy, passionate, sometimes heartbreaking past. Meticulously researched and compassionately written,Dreaming in Clay on the Coast of Mississippigathers one family's eternal legacy of wisdom and beauty, the healing power of art, the consolations of writing and of memory, and the spiritual treasures given us by the natural world.

Author Biography

Christopher Maurer, professor of Spanish and chair of Romance Studies at Boston University, is the author of eight books, including the award-winning Fortune's Favorite Child: The Uneasy Life of Walter Anderson (University Press of Mississippi). Mara Estrella Iglesias has taught at Harvard University and the University of Illinois-Chicago. Her collection of American art pottery was featured on Home and Garden TV and her jewelry on Sundays with Liz Walker (Boston CBSsub4/sub) and Chronicle.

Table of Contents

Note to New Edition	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
The Magic Union	p. 1
Blueprints	p. 38
Midlife Journey	p. 52
Art and Industry	p. 62
Growing Weather	p. 78
Love and Glazes	p. 94
Mud and Paint	p. 112
Making Widgets	p. 131
Moths and Bees	p. 151
"Trembling, on the Edge of Light..."	p. 166
Homecoming	p. 186
Oldfields	p. 215
Tender Miracles	p. 238
Fortune's Favorite Child	p. 254
"Goodbye, Old Lady"	p. 273
Traces	p. 283
List of Illustrations	p. 301
Bibliography	p. 305
Notes	p. 309
Shearwater Marks and Dates	p. 341
Index	p. 347
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