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Red House : Being a Mostly Accurate Account of New England's Oldest
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Red House : Being a Mostly Accurate Account of New England's Oldest Continuously Lived-In House Hardcover - 2004

by Messer, Sarah

  • Used

What would it be like to grow up in a home suffused with three hundred years of another family's history? When Sarah Messer's parents impulsively purchased Red House from Richard Warren Hatch, the great-great-great-great-great grandson of the original owner, Walter Hatch, they acquired much more than a lovingly preserved colonial home. The house contained Hatch family journals, letters, and daguerreotypes, and Walter Hatch's last will and testament, which stated that the house was to be passed down 'forever from generation to generation to the world's end never to be sold or mortgaged from my children and grandchildren forever.'

With a poet's eye for clever detail and an ear for the rhythm of place and language, Red House is a real work of living history, a story of America from its wild beginnings in colonial New England through nine generations of the Hatch family. Based on an award-winning article Messer wrote for Yankee Magazine about Red House, this is a book for those of us who love old houses, colonial history, and beautifully written family stories.

Description

Penguin Publishing Group. Used - Very Good. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects.
Used - Very Good
NZ$11.43
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Summary

A quirky and fascinating memoir of a childhood spent with the legacy and ghosts of a 300-year-old houseIn her critically acclaimed, ingenious memoir, Sarah Messer explores America’s fascination with history, family, and Great Houses. Her Massachusetts childhood home had sheltered the Hatch family for 325 years when her parents bought it in 1965. The will of the house’s original owner, Walter Hatch—which stipulated Red House was to be passed down, "never to be sold or mortgaged from my children and grandchildren forever"—still hung in the living room. In Red House, Messer explores the strange and enriching consequences of growing up with another family’s birthright. Answering the riddle of when shelter becomes first a home and then an identity, Messer has created a classic exploration of heritage, community, and the role architecture plays in our national identity.

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Media reviews

Few contemporary American writers have so acute a feeling for the interweaving of personal and social history...wonderful. (Charles Baxter, author of Feast of Love)Impossible to put down. (Terry Ryan, bestselling author of The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio)The Red House is the best work of non-fiction I've read in years... This book sizzles with authority. (Haven Kimmel, author of A Girl Named Zippy)Red House is the story of AmericaBoldly conceived and meticulously crafted, Red House is alive with ghosts and possibilities...mesmerizing. (Beth Kephart, author of A Slant of Sun, National Book Award finalist, and Still Love in Strange Places)Joyous and tragic by turns...an act of loving restoration that ensures the Red House will live on forever. (George Howe Colt, author of The Big House, National Book Award Finalist)Sarah Messer's lively, lyrical memoir...gives new meaning to the idea of place and the place of history in our lives. (Jane Brox, author of Five Thousand Days Like This OneLucid, Lyrical prose...a truly memorable work. (Charles Siebert, author of Wickerby)Messer's riveting account of intersecting families over space and time is a powerful and beautiful piece of writing (Jenny McPhee, author of The Center of Things)

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