Good morning Everyone!
One of the Paperback Covers for the book
This week on Bibliophilic Friday, I am going to share with you the first book we’ve talked about that is out of print and not available as an e-book. It’s worth the trouble of finding it, though. This is another one of those books that I have read to pieces – I’m currently on my third copy, although this is the first hard bound copy I have owned, and slowly but surely edging my way forward to needing copy number four.
The book is Helen Hooven Santmyer’s And Ladies of the Club. It is the story of a group of women in a fictional town named Waynesboro in Ohio who form a literary club in the late 1860’s, shortly after the end of the Civil War. The book follows the lives of these women from the founding of the club through to the death of the last founding member in the 1930’s after Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected for the first time. This summary does not do the book justice.
If I had to select two main characters for the book, I would choose Anne Alexander and Sarah (Sally) Cochran, as they are named in the beginning of the book. We follow both of them through the ups and downs of their lives, pregnancies, marital issues, children, deaths and all of the myriad threads that add up to an individual’s life. The richness of the novel lies not just in the vivid settings that Ms. Santmeyer deftly weaves through the narrative, but also in the way she brings her characters to life – by the end of the book, you feel like you know and are friends with not only Anne and Sally, but many of the supporting cast – Amanda, who received a degree from Oberlin College at a time when few women did, Kitty Edwards, full of spirit and life, Elsa, Sally’s daughter, a women of strong character and kindness and many, many others. Nor are the only strong characters in the book females – John Gordon, Ludwig and Paul Rausch and Sam Travers are just a few of the males you make friends with. This is a book that transports you back to the 1860’s, then walks you forward decade by decade until it ends.
The story of the author is also fascinating. Helen Hooven Santmyer apparently worked on this book for over 50 years. It was first published in hardback in 1982 and didn’t make much of a splash. The the mother of a high-ranking editor in a publishing company picked up the book at her local library, absolutely loved it and then insisted that her son read it and urged him to release it as a mass market paperback. It was a best-seller in 1984 in that format. Ms. Santmeyer passed away at the age of 90 on February 21, 1986, having seen her book on the best seller list of the New York Times for 37 consecutive weeks in 1984, including several weeks at number one.
Reading this book, which is over 1000 pages long, may seem like a commitment when you first pick it up, but by the time you are through the few pages, the length of the book becomes immaterial.
Take the time to find this book – even though it is out of print, there are plenty of decently priced paperback and even hardback copies to be found. Amazon is a good place to look for them, and I’m sure some other sites, like Barnes & Noble, would be good too. Then take the time to read it. You’ll be glad you did!
Have a great weekend!
Nancy
Tales from the Mom-Side 