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More copies of this ISBNThis title in other editionsThe Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Homeby George Howe Colt
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:In this intimate and poignant history of a sprawling century-old summer house on Cape Cod, George Howe Colt reveals not just one family's fascinating story but a vanishing way of life. Faced with the sale of the treasured house where he had spent forty-two summers, Colt returned for one last August with his wife and young children. The Big House, the author's loving tribute to his one-of-a-kind family home, interweaves glimpses of that elegiac final visit with memories of earlier summers spent at the house and of the equally idiosyncratic people who lived there over the course of five generations.
Built by Colt's great-grandfather one hundred years ago on a deserted Cape Cod peninsula, the house is a local landmark (neighboring children know it as the Ghost House): a four-story, eleven-bedroom jumble of gables, bays, sloped roofs, and dormers. The emotional home of the Colt family, the Big House has watched over five weddings, four divorces, and three deaths, along with countless anniversaries, birthday parties, nervous breakdowns, and love affairs. Beaten by wind and rain, insulated by seaweed, it is both romantic and run-down, a symbol of the faded glory of the Boston Brahmin aristocracy. With a mixture of amusement and affection, Colt traces the rise and fall of this tragicomic social class while memorably capturing the essence of summer's ephemeral pleasures: sailing, tennis, fishing, rainy-day reading. Time seems to stand still in a summer house, and for the Colts the Big House always seemed an unchanging place in a changing world. But summer draws to a close, and the family must eventually say good-bye. Review:"This book is full of uncertainty, wonder and surprise." The Economist
Review:"Colt's account, like the house that lies at its center, is full of surprises...contains more than seems humanly possible." The New Yorker
Review:"The Big House brings engagingly and memorably to life the house and the people who inhabited it." Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post
Synopsis:Faced with the sale of the century-old family summer house on Cape Cod where he had spent forty-two summers, George Howe Colt returned for one last stay with his wife and children. This poignant tribute to the eleven-bedroom jumble of gables, bays, and dormers that watched over weddings, divorces, deaths, anniversaries, birthdays, breakdowns, and love affairs for five generations interweaves Colt's final visit with memories of a lifetime of summers. Run-down yet romantic, the Big House stands not only as a cherished reminder of summer's ephemeral pleasures but also as a powerful symbol of a vanishing way of life.
About the AuthorGeorge Howe Colt is a former staff writer at Life magazine whose articles have been published in The New York Times, Civilization, and Mother Jones, among other publications. The author of The Enigma of Suicide, a critically acclaimed work of nonfiction, he lives with his family in rural western Massachusetts.
Table of ContentsContents
Prologue: Winter
PART ONE I Arriving II The Family Tree III 1963 IV The Discovery of Cape Cod V Rooftree VI Renovations VII Fishing VIII The North and South Faces IX The Barn X Plain Living XI Money XII Sailing XIII Tennis
Midsummer PART TWO XIV Hidden House XV The Big Cove XVI Missing Cards XVII Rain XVIII The White Elephant XIX Full House XX Florida XXI Leaving
Epilogue: Indian Summer
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