Books

Susan Byrum Rountree is the author of Nags Headers, a regional history set on North Carolina’s storied Outer Banks. The story traces a multigenerational love affair between a group of families and a mile-long stretch of sand inhabited by a handful of cottages, elegant in their simpilicty —the famous Unpainted Aristocracy. Readers will make the acquaintance of S. J. Twine, the wiry carpenter and self-taught architectural genius who designed structures that have withstood hurricanes and countless northeasters. They’ll meet Mary Frances Flowers, whose family hosted President Franklin Roosevelt for lunch one hot August afternoon on the 400th anniversary of Virginia Dare’s birthday. They’ll hear the words of hurricane survivor Virginia Flora Hall, now a centenarian, and of Beulah Wadsworth, who summered at Nags Head for many years as a servant of the Drane family. Susan Byrum Rountree tells these stories and so many more, with the help of oral histories from Nags Headers ages twelve to one hundred. Photographs gathered from private collections complete the story of Nags Headers.

If you’ve ever held a fretful baby in your lap, watched a toddler struggle to learn a new skill, comforted a child who has lost a friend to tragedy, or stepped aside as your grown child becomes even more than the person you dreamed she’d be, you’ll love this collection of twenty-two essays about the joys and struggles of being a mother. Move over, ladies of the evening, this is the world’s oldest profession.

In the early spring of 2013, my doctor father contracted pneumonia and a plethora of complications that would take his life. Each week, I took a day or two off to spend time with him, and these stories can be found here.

I’ve always written about my family. The serve, usually with permission, as backdrop to my many voiles and shortcomings. They’ve tolerated it, but recently more than one said: When are you going to write about me?

In May of this year, I was diagnosed with breast cancer —a kidnapping, I’d say — not a journey. A journey is a river cruise or raising a child or climbing up from the floor of the grand canyon. A kidnapping is something that seizes you and takes you along for the ride.