Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
The Florist's Daughter Trade cloth - 2007
by Patricia Hampl
"Nothing is harder to grasp than a relentlessly modest life."
From Patricia Hampl, the author of Blue Arabesque, comes this thoughtful and affecting memoir, a meditation on the death of her parents. As Patricia holds on to her dying mother's hand with one hand, she begins to write her obituary with the other. "She would have expected nothing less," Patricia explains. "For the dutiful writer-daughter scribbling in the half-light, holding the dying hand while hitting the high points of her subject’s allegedly ordinary life that is finally going to see print."
From here, Patricia reflects on growing up middle class as the daughter of a florist and his wife in St. Paul, Minnesota. Whereas her father, a true artist, was obsessive about his flower arrangements, he was also inattentive to the outside world. She recounts the Midwestern values he clung to, even as he was losing his business to cheats. She also begins to understand how her mother, the feisty and distrustful daughter of Czech immigrants with an uncanny ability to tell a good story, almost lost her mind fighting their enemy.
In The Florist's Daughter, Hampl once again exhibits her ability to capture the complexity and depth of her subjects, suggesting that what is most personal, can also be most elusive.
From here, Patricia reflects on growing up middle class as the daughter of a florist and his wife in St. Paul, Minnesota. Whereas her father, a true artist, was obsessive about his flower arrangements, he was also inattentive to the outside world. She recounts the Midwestern values he clung to, even as he was losing his business to cheats. She also begins to understand how her mother, the feisty and distrustful daughter of Czech immigrants with an uncanny ability to tell a good story, almost lost her mind fighting their enemy.
In The Florist's Daughter, Hampl once again exhibits her ability to capture the complexity and depth of her subjects, suggesting that what is most personal, can also be most elusive.
Summary
During the long farewell of her mother’s dying, Patricia Hampl revisits her Midwestern girlhood. Daughter of a debonair Czech father, whose floral work gave him entrŽe into St. Paul society, and a distrustful Irishwoman with an uncanny ability to tell a tale, Hampl remained, primarily and passionately, a daughter well into adulthood. She traces the arc of faithfulness and struggle that comes with that role from the postwar years past the turbulent sixties. The Florist’s Daughter is a tribute to the ardor of supposedly ordinary people. Its concerns reach beyond a single life to achieve a historic testament to midcentury middle America. At the heart of this book is the humble passion of people who struggled out of the Depression into a better chance, not only for themselves but for the common good. Widely recognized as one of our most masterful memoirists, Patricia Hampl has written her most intimate, yet most universal, work to date.
Details
- Title The Florist's Daughter
- Author Patricia Hampl
- Binding Trade Cloth
- Edition First Edition
- Pages 240
- Language EN
- Publisher Harcourt, Orlando
- Date October 1, 2007
- ISBN 9780151012572
Media reviews
"The Florist’s Daughter is Hampl’s finest, most powerful book yet…. Hampl proves that the material closest to home is often the richest...a wonder of a memoir."
More Copies for Sale
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
The Florist's Daughter
by Hampl, Patricia
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Fine. No dust jacket.
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780151012572 / 0151012571
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Derwood, Maryland, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$3.37NZ$8.50 shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Houghton Mifflin. 2007. Hard cover. Fine. No dust jacket.. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 240 p. Audience: General/trade. . No previous owner's name. Clean, tight pages. No bent corners. .
Item Price
NZ$3.37
NZ$8.50
shipping to USA
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
The Florist's Daughter
by Hampl, Patricia
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Very good in very good dust jacket
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780151012572 / 0151012571
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Luxemburg, Wisconsin, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$4.77NZ$9.29 shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), 2007. Hard cover. Very good in very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 240 p. Audience: General/trade.
Item Price
NZ$4.77
NZ$9.29
shipping to USA
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
The Florist's Daughter
by Hampl, Patricia
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Very good in fine dust jacket.
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780151012572 / 0151012571
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Derwood, Maryland, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$5.08NZ$8.50 shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Houghton Mifflin. 2007. Hard cover. Very good in fine dust jacket.. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 240 p. Audience: General/trade. . No previous owner's name. Clean, tight pages. No bent corners. No remainder mark. has shelf wear dust on closed pages, particularly top .
Item Price
NZ$5.08
NZ$8.50
shipping to USA
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
The Florist's Daughter
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Acceptable
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780151012572 / 0151012571
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Eugene , Oregon, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$7.65NZ$6.80 shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Harcourt. Used - Acceptable. ATTN: EX-LIBRARY COPY>>>> Former Library book. hardcover The item is fairly worn but still readable. Signs of wear include aesthetic issues such as scratches, worn covers, damaged binding. The item may have identifying markings on it or show other signs of previous use. May have page creases, creased spine, bent cover or markings inside. Packed with care, shipped promptly.
Item Price
NZ$7.65
NZ$6.80
shipping to USA
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
The Florist's Daughter
by Hampl, Patricia
- Used
- Condition
- Used - Good
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780151012572 / 0151012571
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Mishawaka, Indiana, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$8.52FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Used - Good. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages.
Item Price
NZ$8.52
FREE shipping to USA
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
The Florist's Daughter
by Hampl, Patricia
- Used
- Condition
- Used - Good
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780151012572 / 0151012571
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Mishawaka, Indiana, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$8.52FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Used - Good. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages.
Item Price
NZ$8.52
FREE shipping to USA
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
The Florist's Daughter
by Hampl, Patricia
- Used
- Condition
- Used - Good
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780151012572 / 0151012571
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Reno, Nevada, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$9.76FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Used - Good. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages.
Item Price
NZ$9.76
FREE shipping to USA
The Florist's Daughter
by Patricia Hampl
- Used
- very good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780151012572 / 0151012571
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Seattle, Washington, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$10.21FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2007. Hardcover. Very Good. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
Item Price
NZ$10.21
FREE shipping to USA
The Florist's Daughter
by Patricia Hampl
- Used
- good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780151012572 / 0151012571
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Seattle, Washington, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$10.21FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2007. Hardcover. Good. Disclaimer:A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact. The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include previous owner inscriptions. At ThriftBooks, our motto is: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
Item Price
NZ$10.21
FREE shipping to USA
The Florist's Daughter
by Patricia Hampl
- Used
- good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780151012572 / 0151012571
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Seattle, Washington, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$10.21FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2007. Hardcover. Good. Disclaimer:A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact. The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include previous owner inscriptions. The dust jacket is missing. At ThriftBooks, our motto is: Read More, Spend Less.
Item Price
NZ$10.21
FREE shipping to USA