The Only House Book We'll Ever Need
In 1907 the author Carolyn Wells wrote Marjorie's Vacation, in which a high-spirited girl rides a train and
summers at her grandmother's well-appointed country house. The book was part of a Marjorie series, and
though I don't know who loved them in 1907, I know at least one edition passed seven decades' worth of
readers before it got to me.
In 1976 Marjorie and her pals Molly and Stella mesmerized me with their summer tale, and I read and re-read
it by flashlight until it was torn and nearly spineless. I took Marjorie with me as a clothbound lucky charm, faithful
to the red book despite teen boys, a ratty college apartment, young married life and finally, our new old house - she
arrived in moving box #28.
My plan was to keep the book safe enough for my some-day Josie's some-day shelf, and that's where Marjorie
lives today, still well-loved, mostly by flashlight.
Nothing much happens in Marjorie. She finds kittens, presses wildflowers, and - this is key - falls off a roof
and sprains her ankle. Laid up by her own foolishness, Marjorie must spend a month in bed. A month? Years
later I would think, my god - slap on an Ace bandage on that girl and move it along!
While she heals, wacky Uncle Steve-from-the-city brings Marjorie a stack of ladies' magazines and a blank
journal so that she may spend her days in freshly ironed pink pyjamas, making house-scenes in her book.
I'll bet you six glue sticks Carolyn Wells never dreamed she'd inspire a pony-tailed 70's girl to do the same, much
less her thoroughly modern daughter - but here we are, one hundred and one years after Marjorie took her
vacation, still cutting and pasting the only house book we'll ever need.
Josie's red room.
my English room
You rock, Carolyn Wells, and your curly-headed Marjorie does, too. Thanks!
Clap! Clap! Clap! I love the way this post rolls out. Kudos to Josie on the red room - it looks fabulous.
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My grandmother had a book with pictures from magazines and newspapers pasted in it. They were grouped together for rooms. My Dad's Mom had great style.
More Claps from down south! Lovely post. I also love the colors of the books.
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What a great project! I'll have to keep my eye out for Marjorie.
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I have a sprained ankle - I am limping along with my cane, going about my daily routine, and while a month in bed sounds like a bit much, I wouldn't mind terribly being ordered to take to the sofa for a couple of days!
Anne of Green Gables had to spend six weeks in bed (I think) after falling off a roof, but she broke her ankle rather than spraining it.
Gorgeous house, Josie!
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Oh wow. I read that book when I was a kid... may still have it, in fact, along with a few old Bobbsey Twins, Old Mother West Winds, and so on, some of which must have been my grandmother's.
I've hung onto the Thornton Burgess (and oddly, my animal-obsessed son hasn't picked up on them yet, to my disappointment... 'course, he gets the 50-cent WalMart reprints, not the crumbling, yellowed ones older than our house), but I'm not sure if I still have Marjorie, or if she was lost in the Great Dishwasher Flood (wherein my parents learned that "in the basement directly below the kitchen sink/dishwasher" is not the best location for one's entire book collection). And of course the survivors are all boxed up right now, and I really ought to leave them that way for now...
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My grandparents retired to a cabin by a lake in northern Iowa and my sister would spend a couple of weeks there in the summer reading old books she'd gathered at garage sales. Some she'd held onto from when my dad and his brothers and sisters were little. I have the same kind of memories you have. I can remember spending the whole day swimming in the lake, then coming home to collapse sunburned and exhausted on the front porch with a dogeared cloth bound novel of fluff. It felt like I was joining and carrying on a tradition of summer relaxation. My husband and I bought my grandparents' cabin from them when they moved into assisted living and with it came all those books and the same pitted old couch on the front porch. I've updated a lot of things about that house, and the books are now on different shelves than they started out on, but they'll always be there, ready for some skinny brown skinned youngster to lose herself in. Thanks so much for sharing your creative projects!
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Awesome little book - Josie's, that is. I will definitely have to look for Carolyn Wells - I've never heard of these, though I loved to read as a teen - well, I still kinda do, but have a house and 3 kids to take care of.
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The ongoing house book really is a fun and relaxing thing to do, and a good way to use up the magazines & catalogs. Josie is ticked that I only posted one of her rooms!
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