The Big House
A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home
Scribner · Print & ebook · June 8, 2004
Faced with the sale of the century-old family summer house on Cape Cod where he had spent forty-two summers, George Howe Colt recounts returning for one last stay with his wife and children in this stunning memoir that was a National Book Award Finalist and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
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- Who it’s for
- A layered look at a summer home as history, memory, and social change settle in.
- Genres
- Personal Memoirs, New England History, Cultural Heritage Lives
- Published
- Scribner, June 8, 2004
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Faced with the sale of the century-old family summer house on Cape Cod where he had spent forty-two summers, George Howe Colt recounts returning for one last stay with his wife and children in this stunning memoir that was a National Book Award Finalist and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
Continue reading
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.
A House Over Time
A layered look at a summer home as history, memory, and social change settle in.
Come here for
- New England home history
- family, summer, and place over time
Expect
- sustained narrative arc
- cultural-literacy-rich detail
Where it sits
| Personal Memoirs | 84% |
|---|---|
| New England History | 78% |
| Cultural Heritage Lives | 29% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Personal Memoirs
- 20th-Century America
- Home & Living
- Authors
- George Howe Colt
- Publisher
- Scribner
- Published
- June 8, 2004
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- Personal Memoirs