I've lived on and visited Deer Isle for many years and only recently discovered that John Steinbeck visited here in 1960. He stayed on Dunham's Point just a short walk from my house, and his time on Deer Isle sounds magical -- as Deer Isle can be. He described it early on in "Travels with Charley": "One doesn't have to be sensitive to feel the strangeness of Deer Isle. ... It is an island that nestles like a suckling against the breast of Maine ... The sheltered darkling water seems to suck up the light ... The pine woods rustle and the wind cries over open country that is like Dartmoor." And later: "This Isle is like Avalon: it must disappear when you are not there."
So if he visited on Eleanor Brace on Dunham's Point, then where is the exact place? Well, the Internet being what it is, it didn't take a lot of sleuthing to find that the house is now owned and lived in by her niece Brenda Gilchrist. Now, I wouldn't violate Brenda's privacy by writing about her here if she hadn't been writing about the house and the Steinbeck connection herself. Brenda is an author of a newish book (2012) about her move to the lovely old house. I ordered up the book from Amazon and just finished it: "Waltzing with Bracey," available on Amazon and mailed right to your house.
I LOVED this book. It is so Maine, so Deer Isle. While my house can't compete with hers as far as age and family history (I designed and built my house myself, the history is mine alone), I do have friends who have similar old family connections to local gorgeous places and world-wide travel and orientation, just as the author does. The book is full of photos of the older times: I've seen the pictures before, in the baskets and albums in other houses, of the women dressed head to toe in white, the men in bow ties while on a picnic, the boats and the sailing.
If you want a taste of what summering on the Maine coast used to be like, and what year around living is like now, take a look at "Waltzing with Bracey."
So if he visited on Eleanor Brace on Dunham's Point, then where is the exact place? Well, the Internet being what it is, it didn't take a lot of sleuthing to find that the house is now owned and lived in by her niece Brenda Gilchrist. Now, I wouldn't violate Brenda's privacy by writing about her here if she hadn't been writing about the house and the Steinbeck connection herself. Brenda is an author of a newish book (2012) about her move to the lovely old house. I ordered up the book from Amazon and just finished it: "Waltzing with Bracey," available on Amazon and mailed right to your house.
I LOVED this book. It is so Maine, so Deer Isle. While my house can't compete with hers as far as age and family history (I designed and built my house myself, the history is mine alone), I do have friends who have similar old family connections to local gorgeous places and world-wide travel and orientation, just as the author does. The book is full of photos of the older times: I've seen the pictures before, in the baskets and albums in other houses, of the women dressed head to toe in white, the men in bow ties while on a picnic, the boats and the sailing.
If you want a taste of what summering on the Maine coast used to be like, and what year around living is like now, take a look at "Waltzing with Bracey."
Thank you! Very interesting to read about Steinbeck on Deer Isle.
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