Synopses & Reviews
Raised with twelve brothers in a part of the segregated South that provided no school for African American children through the 1940s, Sylvia Bell White went North as a teenager, dreaming of a nursing career and a freedom defined in part by wartime rhetoric about American ideals. In Milwaukee she and her brothers persevered through racial rebuffs and discrimination to find work. Barred by both her gender and color from employment in the cityandrsquo;s factories, Sylvia scrubbed floors, worked as a nurseandrsquo;s aide, and took adult education courses.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; When a Milwaukee police officer killed her younger brother Daniel Bell in 1958, the Bell family suspected a racial murder but could do nothing to prove itandmdash;until twenty years later, when one of the two officers involved in the incident unexpectedly came forward. Danielandrsquo;s siblings filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city and ultimately won that four-year legal battle. Sylvia was the driving force behind their quest for justice.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Telling her whole life story in these pages, Sylvia emerges as a buoyant spirit, a sparkling narrator, and, above all, a powerful witness to racial injustice. Jody LePageandrsquo;s chapter introductions frame the narrative in a historical span that reaches from Sylviaandrsquo;s own enslaved grandparents to the nationandrsquo;s first African American president. Giving depth to that wide sweep, this oral history brings us into the presence of an extraordinary individual. Rarely does such a voice receive a hearing.
Winner, Book Award of Merit, Wisconsin Historical Society
Review
andldquo;House Hold has the makings of an American classic: a perceptive and deeply affecting book about belonging to a place and yet never quite belonging.andrdquo;andmdash;Alice Kaplan, Yale University
Review
“Here is an autobiography told through buildings and books, and the characters that inhabit both are vividly rendered and entirely memorable.”—Christopher Bakken, author of Honey, Olives, Octopus
Review
andldquo;At a moment when the American dream of home is in jeopardy, comes Ann Petersandrsquo;s utterly engaging and singular memoir. Telling the stories of the houses she has inhabited, the landscapes, writers and people who have given her life meaning, she reminds us the search for home is also a quest for the soulandrsquo;s refuge, and that an account of the places of oneandrsquo;s life can be a source of revelation.andrdquo;andmdash;Honor Moore, author of The Bishopandrsquo;s Daughter
Review
and#147;
House Hold sketches the progress of one womanand#8217;s life according to the blueprint of those spacesand#151;architectural and familial and literaryand#151;she has inhabited. Here is an autobiography told through buildings and books, then, and the characters that inhabit both are vividly rendered and entirely memorable.and#8221;and#151;Christopher Bakken, author of
Honey, Olives, Octopus: Adventures at the Greek TableReview
and#147;In
House Hold, Ann Peters has built a literary edifice that seamlessly combines memoir, meditation and literary analysis. From Wisconsin to the boroughs of New York City and, at last, a farmhouse in upstate New York, Peters brings alive for herself and her readers the places she has lived in and dreamed of.and#8221;and#151;Willard Spiegelman, author of
Seven Pleasures: Essays on Ordinary HappinessReview
and#147;Peters has engagingly blended her experiences of and#145;dwellingand#8217; and the final impossibility of possessing space with the experiences of American writers such as Henry James, Willa Cather, Walt Whitman, Paule Marshall, and William Maxwell.and#8221;and#151;Margot Peters, author of
Lorine Niedecker: A Poetand#8217;s LifeReview
andquot;A fascinating biography, adding important insight into the African American experience in Wisconsin as well as the broader histories of migration, race, and employment in the twentieth-century United States.andquot;andmdash;William P. Jones, author of The Tribe of Black Ulysses: African American Lumber Workers in the Jim Crow South
Review
andquot;A vivid and moving story, Sylvia Bell White's life tracks the roots and routes of many working-class black people of her generation. But she also shows her vibrant individuality, her refusal to be the typical or the representative woman, her determination to be herself.andquot;andmdash;William L. Andrews, series editor and coeditor of The Norton Anthology of African American Literature
Review
andldquo;If youandrsquo;re looking for something thatandrsquo;s different, powerful, and sometimes delightful, then youandrsquo;re going to love this book.andrdquo;andmdash;
The Washington InformerReview
andldquo;Whiteandrsquo;s story . . . is a powerful and moving one told in the voice of the remarkable woman who lived it.andrdquo;andmdash;
OnMilwaukee.comReview
andldquo;LePage intersperses richly researched historical context on the twentieth-century African American experience . . . . [and] helps convey and lend context to Bell Whiteandrsquo;s deep convictions about family, education and racism.andrdquo;andmdash;
Madison Magazineand#160;Review
andldquo;Nostalgia is a complicated version of love, Peters reveals in this elegiac memoir, which can threaten to fade the vivid present to a sepia-toned past.andrdquo;andmdash;
Kirkus ReviewsReview
andldquo;Peters writes beautifully on the meaning of authenticity and the need to belong.andrdquo;andmdash;
BooklistSynopsis
Like the house built by Ann Petersandrsquo;s father on a hill in eastern Wisconsin, House Hold offers many views: cornfields and glacial lakes, fast food parking lots and rural highways, Manhattan apartments and Brooklyn brownstones. Peters revisits the modern split-level where she grew up in Wisconsin, remembering her architect father. Against the background of this formative space, she charts her roaming story through two decades of New York City apartments, before traveling to a cabin in the mountains of Colorado and finally purchasing an old farmhouse in upstate New York.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; More than a memoir of remembered landscapes, House Hold is also an expansive contemplation of America, a meditation on place and property, and an exploration of how literature shapes our thinking about the places we live. A gifted prose stylist, Peters seamlessly combines her love of buildings with her love of books. She wanders through the rooms of her past but also through what Henry James called andldquo;the house of fiction,andrdquo; interweaving personal narrative with musings on James, Willa Cather, William Dean Howells, Paule Marshall, William Maxwell, and others. Peters reflects on the romance of pastoral retreat, the hazards of nostalgia, Americaandrsquo;s history of expansion and land ownership, and the conflicted desires to put down roots and to hit the road. Throughout House Hold, she asks how places make us who we are.
Synopsis
The Wisconsin-born Frank Lloyd Wright (1867 1959) is recognized worldwide as an iconic architectural genius. In 1911 he designed Taliesin to use as his personal residence, architectural studio, and working farm. A century later Randolph C. Henning has assembled a splendid collection of rare vintage postcards, some never before published, that provides a revealing and visually unique journey through Wright s work at Taliesin. Included are intimate images of Taliesin at various stages and views of the building just after the tragic 1914 fire. The postcards also depict nearby buildings designed by Wright, including the Romeo and Juliet windmill and two buildings for the Hillside Home School. Henning provides useful explanations that highlight relevant details and accompany each image. Frank Lloyd Wright s Taliesin documents and celebrates Wright s 100-year-old masterpiece.
Finalist, Midwest Book Awards for Cover Design and for Regional Interest Illustrated Book
Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the American Association of School Librarians
Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the Public Library Reviewers"
About the Author
Sylvia Bell White was born in Milwaukee in 1930 and raised in Louisiana. She migrated to Milwaukee at seventeen and now lives near Milwaukee. Jody LePage met White in 1973 when both were selling vegetables at a farmers' market in Madison, Wisconsin. She is an independent historian with a PhD from the University of Wisconsinandndash;Madison. She lives and works in the Madison area.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160; and#160;and#160;Part One: The House1 The House on the Ledgeand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;2 The Architectand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;3 The Second Houseand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;4 The Holy Landand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;5 Leavingand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;Part Two: The Apartment6 Reid Terraceand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;7 Manhattanand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;8 Lafayetteand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;9 Brownstoneand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;Part Three: The Return10 Lake Cityand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;11 Ancestorsand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;12 Jeffersonand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;Acknowledgmentsand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;Notesand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;Bibliographyand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;Index