A new friend . . . Gladys Taber

Recently, while browsing Susan Branch's website (www.susanbranch.com), I was introduced to Gladys Taber. She was a well known author through the middle 1900s. Having never heard of her before, I picked up one of her books at the library: The Best of Stillmeadow. I've found a new friend.

Gladys lived in an old farmhouse in Southbury, Connecticut. One reviewer likened her books to"a hearth side visit with a wise and understanding friend," and another said: "Her homespun humor is delightful, and able to bring a smile to your face as you feel right at home in her home." The farmhouse was purchased with an old friend, and the two families enjoyed many years of happiness there.

The Best of Stillmeadow is a series of meditational stories following the calendar month. I've just finished April. Let me share two portions of her writing that I particularly like:

"For a time we shall have both winter birds that companioned us during the long cold, and the migratory ones coming from strange southern lands. The air is filled with the excitement of wings. However, much as I welcome the wanderers, I love most the chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers, for they have shared the bitter season with us, and never a blizzard too fierce for them to chatter away at the window feeder. I suspect we always love best those who share the hard things with us. Spring and summer friends are delightful, but give me winter friends for my dearest." . . . "A couple of cats and a bevy of cockers and an Irish liven things up considerably. It is hard to be melancholy with somebody playing leapfrog around the room. Paw marks on the windowsill are a small price to pay for joy." (emphasis mine :)

Gladys was an editor and columnist for Ladies Home Journal and Family Circle for over 40 years.
Her best loved books are about her life at Stillmeadow. She wrote about her happiness found from living in the farmhouse and caring for both cat and dog, numbers of them. She raised prized-winning cocker spaniels, with the exception of a beloved Irish Setter.

Susan Branch spoke about her in one on her blog posts: "Through her eyes, we experience the passing seasons from her 1690 Connecticut farmhouse; share in her passion for animals, gardening, cooking, and homemaking. Her books are filled with practical advice and her common sense view of the way things are."

She was born in 1899 and died in 1980. She's a good read regarding life in the middle 1900s. Thank you, Susan, for introducing me to Gladys Taber. It's a pleasure to learn about this remarkable and humble women.

Following are two more quotes of interest: "Perhaps, after all, our best thoughts come when we are alone. It is good to listen, not to voices but to the wind blowing, to the brook running cool over polished stones, to bees drowsy with the weight of pollen. If we attend to the music of the earth, we reach serenity. And then, in some unexplained way, we share it with others."

"But housekeeping is fun. It is one job where you enjoy the results right along as you work. You may work all day washing and ironing, but at night you have the delicious feeling of sunny clean sheets and airy pillows to lie on. If you clean, you sit down at nightfall with the house shining and faintly smelling of wax, all yours to enjoy right than and there. And if you cook--that creation you lift from the oven goes right to the table."

Shortly after her death, the Friends of Gladys Taber was formed by a fan. The group is still active, numbering 400 women and men around the world. They meet annually at places associated with her birth, early childhood and adult years, to study and discuss the influences on her life and to celebrate both her fictional and nonfiction works. Yearly visitors appear in Southbury and approach the Southbury library to find out if Stillmeadow still exists.

Maybe I've wet your appetite to some good reading. I'm always on the lookout for good authors. I've already requested another book from the library. I leave you with this quote:

"But in this season, it is well to reassert that the hope of mankind rests in faith. 'As man thinketh, so he is.' Nothing much happens unless you believe in it, and believing there is hope for the world is a way to move toward it."