Death, Grief & Bereavement, Family Tragedies, Adoptees & Orphans - Biography, U.S. Authors - 20th Century - Literary Biography, Research - Psychology, Women's Biography - General & Miscellaneous, Siblings
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Overview
Isabel Bolton (pen name for Mary Britton Miller) left behind a classic evocation of a childhood which, despite the early loss of both parents, the author describes as "complete and round - a perfect whole." Bolton's earliest impressions of her parents are vague - both died of cholera when she was very young - and her memories begin when the five orphaned Miller children are sent to live with their maternal grandmother. In the elegant rooms of her mansion and in the unkempt gardens surrounding the estate, Mary and her identical twin sister Grace find a sheltering refuge. The shared history of the twins is at the book's heart. "It was never I but always we." Bolton writes. But then tragedy strikes, and in this exquisite example of the art of memoir writing, Bolton lyrically recreates the emotional bond which, 68 years later, remained palpably alive.Editorials
Christopher Carduff
The power of this book...lies...in its unique narrative voice....[It is written] in the plural, "we"....Mary Miller evokes [the experience of] being acccompanied through life by a second self....Under Gemini is an exquisite book, beautiful in its form and haunting in its effects.—The New Criterion
Diana Trilling
...[An] extraordinarily poignant memoir of her quite extraordinary childhood. —The New York Times Book ReviewTimes Literary Supplement
Bolton has been compared to Henry James, Virginia Woolf and Elizabeth Bowen, among others, an attempt to place her that only goes a little way to establish her skill and originality.Diana Trilling
...[An] extraordinarily poignant memoir of her quite extraordinary childhood.— The New York Times Book Review, 1966
Book Details
Published
January 22, 1999
Publisher
Steerforth Press
Pages
133
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9781883642686