Thoughts of Home: Reflections on Families, Houses, and Homelands from the Pages of House Beautiful Magazine

by Elaine Greene

• ISBN13: 9780688169886
• ISBN10: 0688169880
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-05-01
• Publisher: Hearst Corporation

Summary

Riveting, funny, pointed, and poignant, the forty-four essays gathered in this anthology speak eloquently of dreams, memories -- and sometimes the painful realities -- of the personal landscapes we call home. For most people, the notion of home is central to their lives; by the same token, there are a multitude of definitions of the word, many of them very personal and particular. These essays explore the different meanings and significances of "home, " from a house where one grew up to a passion for a place. Not only do they provide fascinating and vivid glimpses into their authors' lives, but these recollections also invariably strike a chord with the reader. No matter how different from our own, each story touches us, eliciting reflection on our personal histories.

Table of Contents

A PASSION FOR PLACE
Innocents at Home	3	(7)
Antonia Stearns
The Trying-to-Leave-New-Orleans Blues	10	(5)
Mimi Read
A Haunted Place	15	(6)
Helena Mann-Melnitchenko
The Love Nest	21	(6)
Jean Kinkead Martine
Pointing East	27	(5)
Brian Doyle
A Family, an Island	32	(7)
Kim Waller
NATURE LOVERS
Almost Like Hibernation	39	(6)
Rick Bass
Flower Child	45	(6)
K. E. Smith
On Feeling Small	51	(6)
Kitty Burns Florey
Confessions of a Dendrophile	57	(8)
William Bryant Logan
CITY PEOPLE
Tree of Dreams	65	(5)
Amanda Lovell
Stardust	70	(6)
Jill Schary Robinson
View From the Inner City	76	(6)
Mary E. Mihaly
The Time-Travel Game	82	(9)
Susan Kamil
COUNTRY PEOPLE
Worldly Goods	91	(7)
Diann Sutherlin
Song of the River	98	(6)
Joyce Orrell
The Grandmother Who Could Do Anything	104	(5)
Claudia Limbert
Real Chicken-Scratch Cow-Pie Country	109	(8)
Jay Scriba
AMERICANS ABROAD
Under the Etruscan Wall	117	(6)
Frances Mayes
Our English Year	123	(5)
Elaine Greenspan
Formentera Spring	128	(6)
Witold Rybczynski
Sentimental Education	134	(7)
Joseph Giovannini
The Palazzo Years	141	(8)
Elaine Greene
HUSBANDS, WIVES, AND HOMESTEADS
Another Woman's House	149	(5)
Helen Henslee
The Marrying Kind	154	(6)
Marybeth Weston Lobdell
The Florida Dream	160	(7)
Jacquelin C. Devlin
Portrait of the Artist's Daughter	167	(7)
Helen Park Bigelow
Mary Small's House	174	(8)
John Hough, Jr
See You in My Dreams, San Francisco	182	(7)
William Bryant Logan
Claire's List	189	(10)
Ann Pringle Harris
CHILDREN AND ELDERS
Grandma and Mrs. Spangler	199	(7)
Eric Brown
This Is What My Uncle Taught Me	206	(4)
Daniel Menaker
What I Knew at Eight	210	(6)
Spencer Harris Morfit
By the Beautiful Sea	216	(4)
Sue Nirenberg
Camp Colors	220	(6)
Elaine Greene
Rearranging the Furniture	226	(6)
Dale Mackenzie Brown
Behind the Parlor Door	232	(9)
Eudora Seyfer
TRANSIENTS
My Mother's Gifts	241	(5)
Catherine Calvert
A Packet of Snapshots	246	(9)
Ann Pringle Harris
GOING BACK
War and Peace in a Very Small Place	255	(6)
Ania Savage
Passage to Kerala	261	(7)
Shoba Narayan
Stories from the Hamam	268	(7)
Julia Duffy Ward
Without the Mango Tree	275	(7)
Lynn Freed
Sneaking Home	282	(6)
Betsy Brown
Contributors' Notes	288