The keepers of the house : a novel

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Title:

The keepers of the house : a novel

Author:

Grau, Shirley Ann author.

ISBN:

9781400030743

Edition:

1st Vintage books ed.

Physical Description:

309 pages ; 21 cm.

General Note:

"Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 1964"--Title page verso.

Contents:

Abigail -- William -- Margaret -- Abigail.

Subject Term:

African Americans -- Fiction.

Race relations -- Fiction.

Interracial marriage -- Fiction.

Plantation life -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Mississippi -- Fiction.

Summary:

Entrenched on the same land since the early 1800s, the Howlands have, for seven generations, been pillars of their southern community. Extraordinary family lore has been passed down to Abigail Howland, but not all of it. When shocking facts come to light about her late grandfather William's relationship with Margaret Carmichael, a black housekeeper, the community is outraged, and quickly gathers to vent its fury on Abigail. Alone in the house the Howlands built, she is at once shaken by those who have betrayed her, and determined to punish the town that has persecuted her and her kin. Morally intricate, graceful, and suspenseful, The Keepers of the House has become a modern classic.

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Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Lake Elmo Library	FICTION GRA	Searching... Unknown
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	FICTION GRA	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1965, The Keepers of the House is Shirley Ann Grau's masterwork, a many-layered indictment of racism and rage that is as terrifying as it is wise.

Entrenched on the same land since the early 1800s, the Howlands have, for seven generations, been pillars of their Southern community. Extraordinary family lore has been passed down to Abigail Howland, but not all of it. When shocking facts come to light about her late grandfather William's relationship with Margaret Carmichael, a black housekeeper, the community is outraged, and quickly gathers to vent its fury on Abigail. Alone in the house the Howlands built, she is at once shaken by those who have betrayed her, and determined to punish the town that has persecuted her and her kin.

Morally intricate, graceful and suspenseful, The Keepers of the House has become a modern classic.

Author Notes

Shirley Ann Grau was born on July 28, 1929 in New Orleans. She is an author who's work is set for the most part in the Deep South and concerns issues of race and gender. She graduated from Newcomb College in 1950. Her collection of stories, The Black Prince, was nominated for the National Book Award in 1956. She won the 1965 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her work, The Keepers of the House. Her last novel was Roadwalkers, published in 1994. her last short story collection was Selected Stories, published in 2006. Shirley Ann Grau died on August 3, 2020 at the age of 91.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (1)

Library Journal Review

Grau's 1965 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel tells the story of Abigail Howland, the current head of a prominent Southern family who becomes a pariah when her neighbors learn that her grandfather had a serious relationship with his black maid. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Abigail	p. 1
William	p. 7
Margaret	p. 79
Abigail	p. 137
Epilogue	p. 291

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (1)

Library Journal Review

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