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Truly, Life is an Adventure:
So reads the last sentence of a new historical biography, Anabel, by Claudia Harper of Santa Barbara, California. Anabel is a recollection and compilation of family history that preserves one family's lineage and background. But Anabel is also a bridge to the past. It helps us to understand more of the past-one family's, California's, and our country's. Claudia Harper felt compelled to delve into her family history in the early 1980s when her mother was ill. While her mother slept, Claudia wrote down her mother's stories. After she died, Claudia and her father cleaned out closets and drawers and discovered a treasure of old photographs. Many of these are here in Anabel, along with the author's impressions and descriptions that detail when the photos were taken and the circumstances that surround them. Also included in the book are poems that explore the emotions and plots the author found in these photos and stories. The poems empathize with the real-life characters we meet in these pages, but aren't their actual words or thoughts: these are the author's, a granddaughter and daughter attempting to understand the lives she's researched and lived through vicariously. The book is organized into chapters that focus on particular individuals, their lives with husbands or wives, or after the loss of a husband or wife. We receive a well-rounded picture of Anabel and the people that were important in her life. And this history is complete with family trees of both sides of Claudia Harper's family. It also contains the memories that bring these historical facts to life: Anabel's stealthy trips to Claudia's school to whisk her away to a movie when she should have been in class; Anabel's travel car and the trips to Santa Cruz she took with the children; the secret story of a grandfather's tragic death; prohibition and Claudia's parents' first date in a speakeasy; FDR and the New Deal and how it changed the country's spirit. Anabel is proof that our relatives and our past make us who we are. It traces common characteristics that recur through generations of one family: devotion to family; an adventuresome nature; a love of gambling and drinking. Anabel reminds us of our own histories, those we know and those we don't, and we're reminded that, yes, life truly is an adventure. About the Author: Claudia Harper was born in San Francisco and raised in Hawaii. She attended Pomona College and the University of California at Berkeley. She has been an educator for most of her career and, like Anabel, a single mother. She lives and writes in Santa Barbara, California. |
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Anabel 128 pages, paperback, photos, $10.00 For ordering information, click here or phone (800) 662-8351 |