House As Mirror of Self

I  just ordered a used copy of a 2006 book I used to own:House As Mirror of Self, by Claire Marcus Cooper. 

When I read this book, it struck so many chords with the book I was then writing, but mine was from a personal perspective; hers was based on years as a Jungian therapist and personal interviews.  My book was personal and anecdotal; Cooper's book was extensively researched and brought a whole different scope to the table.

When I was accepted into Bread Loaf Writing Conference in the mid-nineties, I joined a group of writers and aspiring writers that was stimulating and exciting.  I drove to Vermont in my turquoise 1990 Acura to spend ten days with writers from all over the country and beyond.  Sue Monk Kidd sat beside me every day in our Creative Nonfiction class. Sue has published at least ten books, including The Secret Life of Bees. 

In response to my manuscript Women and Houses,   Terry Tempest Williams, my mentor, wrote, "You must publish this book.  It will be a healing balm to all women." I was euphoric with this praise, but I never published the book--even though I had the good fortune to have an agent who liked my book enough to take it on. 

Visiting her at the Ellen Levine Literary Agency in New York was its own unforgettable experience. This was the place where books were made--not physically made but adopted, or not, by people who knew how to get them to press. 

Instead of following through, I returned from Bread Loaf, decided to end a long marriage, and my energies turned to tending to all the tentacles of single life in my late forties. Suddenly, I needed to support myself--teaching as many as seven college  classes to make a living. I jumped from the peak of Maslow's hierarchy (self actualization) to the bottom rung (survival). I thought it would be temporary. 

"But knowing how road leads to road," in Frost's terms, my road led to leading writing groups and other things.  Those are stories for another day. 

This is all preface for what I'd like to write about on my blog for a while--the relationship of this now 75-year-old woman to this 75-year-old house.

Here are a few quotations from House As Mirror Of Self as prologue.  You can tell by the television references that the book was written twenty years ago: 

"We have become more self-conscious about home as a vehicle for communication and display. The neighbours, our visitors, and ourselves are the intended recipients of this communication. 

If you have any doubts about the extent to which homes communicate, think about the number of TV shows that began with the camera panning over the exterior of a home-Dallas, Dynasty, All in the Family, The Waltons, The Cosby Show, Roseanne, and the list goes on...

A child constructing a den or clubhouse under the hedge is doing far more than merely manipulating dirt and branches. He or she is having a powerful experience of creativity, of learning about self via molding the physical environment." 

If this interests you, stay tuned for more.