List Price: $23.00

Tags: Biographies & Memoirs, Arts & Literature, Authors,

Book Description:
Imagine a secluded little house in the woods by the sea on the Maine coast. Down a bumpy lane, out of harm’s way and the clamor of the modern world, Frankie’s Place is a sublime summer retreat, with mussel beds out front, blackberry bushes out back, evergreens all around, and lovely views of forested mountains and a glacier-carved fjord full of lobster buoys, seabirds and sailboats. One summer, Jim Sterba, veteran war correspondent, accepts an invitation for a weekend visit from a woman he barely knows—author Frances FitzGerald. He arrives and discovers a perfect writer’s nest. He visits against in the fall. The next summer he stays for a week, and gradually falls in love with his host as much as her place. Icy plunges into Somes Sound christen their island mornings, and long periods of dutiful writing are following with rigorous mountain walks, forays for wild mushrooms and sailing. In the evenings, Jim and Frankie prepare simple meals with local ingredients. These two couldn’t have had more disparate childhoods – Jim grew up on a struggling Michigan farm while Frankie lived in a Manhattan townhouse and an English country estate. But their intelligence, ambition, and independence propelled them both into writing careers and kept them single until they met each other later in life. In this Tracy-Hepburn romance, the down-to-earth newspaperman charms the sophisticated New Yorker – their long path to real love makes us cheer Jim on as he walks up a mountain to propose to Frankie, and has us itching for a visit to Mount Desert Island.