$17.95
Paperback, 6″ x 9″
145 pages
ISBN 978-1-63381-305-2
by June Vail
Remembering Virginia Lee Burton
Generations of parents, children, and librarians have treasured Virginia Lee Burton’s beloved books Mike Mulligan and The Little House. June Vail’s warm, honest, joyful memoir offers intimate glimpses into Burton’s wide ranging artistic projects and everyday life. Vail vividly recounts how living with her great-aunt Jinnee in the Folly Cove, Massachusetts, community broadened her teenage perspectives and inspired some unexpected life choices.
* * *
When Mike and his steam shovel Mary Anne find themselves out of work, the ingenious solution turns out literally to be hearth, home, and community. These concepts are central, too, to Burton’s own life as a creator. Folly Cove Sketches abounds with insights about what it means to live the life of an artist and how ― no matter what our discipline ― art brings us home to ourselves.
—Charlotte Agell, children’s book illustrator and author of Maybe Tomorrow?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
June Adler Vail (AB Connecticut College, MALS Wesleyan University) founded Bowdoin College’s dance program and, as professor, chaired the department of theater and dance, teaching courses in choreography and dance ethnography. Folly Cove Sketches is her latest book. Previously she published Cultural Choreographies (1997) and The Passion of Perfection: Gertrude Hitz Burton’s Modern Victorian Life (2017), which was selected as 2017 finalist, Maine Literary Award for Non-fiction. She lives in Brunswick, Maine, with her husband, David, and enjoys reading with her grandchildren.