Fresh off the press: The Joy of the Snow!
Goudge's autobiography reprinted by GGBP with new letters
“Indeed everything seems to grow progressively evil and dreadful. And yet here and there wonderful things do happen, and the sun still rises. My room faces east and I look across fields to the woods in the distance, and just lately the sunrises have been amazing. There are sheep in what we call ‘our field’ (though it isn't) and this morning every sheep was outlined in silver and the sun seemed to be hanging behind our pear-tree like a golden shield.”
Elizabeth Goudge to Madeau, 1980
Goudge’s last book is back in print!
I checked the mail box this afternoon, after a long morning, and I was richly awarded. I spent a very happy hour with Goudge as my only companion, listening to her speak with care and enthusiasm to a professional-colleague-turned-friend who was twenty years her junior. And this in appendix to Goudge’s last book back in print—what a banner day!
I announced in February that Girls Gone By Publishers would be setting for press Goudge’s autobiography, The Joy of the Snow, so that this was the chance for many newer readers to get a reasonably priced copy at last! What a relief for so many readers as Goudge has steadily risen back to popularity causing her used copies to be hard to find.
Today, I will share a few images of the newly published book, some quotes from letters to Madeau Stewart, and a little about the added materials.
Dear Madeau Stewart
Who was Madeau Stewart? How did she know Goudge?
There is an excellent biography included in the new printing of The Joy of the Snow, but I found this interested article also from the time of her death in 2006, which she died at the age of 84—the same age as Goudge was when she herself died:
As the Telegraph writes “she took on the task of augmenting the BBC’s early music and non-British folk and indigenous music archives, a job which involved travelling around the world to collect recordings from far-flung parts and gathering in material from itinerant contributors… As an interviewer she was known for her ability to draw out the particular personality of the artist, from the operatic diva to the shy young instrumentalist.” She also rescued the Victoria and Albert’s collection of historic musical instruments which were then languishing in a sadly neglected backwater of the museum’s department of Woodwork and Furniture. I like the image of her given by the Telegraph: “In the early 1960s she spent time on the island of Inch Kenneth, the home of her half-aunt, Lady Redesdale (she was also related to the Mitfords). There she enjoyed sitting on the rocks, playing her flute while seals flocked around her.”1
Those of you who were hear last year will recognize this reference to The Child from the Sea, which we read together last August.
Letters
These letters were in the collected papers of Madeau Stewart, and are kept in storage with her other items. They first exchanged Christmas cards in 1970, the year of the publication of The Child from the Sea, and Goudge signed her last little note to Stewart the week before she died in 1984.
There are several poignant passages as Goudge shares her struggles and also tries to console the younger Stewart:
“How sad you found those museums closed or half-closed. It is an age of barbarism now, and a terrible age. Hardly to be borne. But there are the Proms. How I love the roar of applause that breaks out from all those young people when they have been listening to something they have loved. It is truly heartening.”
Elizabeth Goudge to Madeau, 1979
“I am so sorry about your mother. I am afraid she is suffering… I gave your last letter to Jessie to read and she thought it a grand idea to put poppies among the vegetables. Our old roses have been wonderful this year. If only they would bloom twice a year, like the modern ones do. But perhaps their short lives make them all the more precious.”
Elizabeth Goudge to Madeau, 1982
I encourage you all to get your own copy while it is in print! And be sure to add the Henrietta books in to your cart as well, as we will be reading those in December and January.
GGBP are hoping to unload a lot of their inventory for a move in the next few months!
Elizabeth Goudge, from Girls Gone By Publishers
Have you received your copy yet? Love to hear!
Related posts:
Soon-back-in-Print: The Joy of the Snow
“A book begins with falling in love. You lose your heart to a place, a house, an avenue of trees, or with a character who walks in and takes sudden and complete possession of you. Imagination glows, and there is the seed of your book.” 💙 Elizabeth Goudge, The Joy of the Snow
Kick off: The Child from the Sea
“Her breath caught as the loveliness rose like a wave and broke over her. It was half past five on a May morning, cool, with a tang in the air, and though the sky was deep blue overhead the high white clouds sailing in from the sea were still bright with the gold of the dayspring. She blinked at the brightness and looked down to the sea of new green lea…
https://tomeemayeepa.wordpress.com/2006/10/06/obituary-madeau-stewart/
(This post is not an ad; I am not affiliated with GGBP.)
I’m so happy that my copy arrived yesterday. Mail was delivered later in the day than usual, so it was a very pleasant surprise to see it in my box around sunset.
I have read about Elizabeth Goudge through Sylvia Gower’s book The World of Elizabeth Goudge, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but there is something special about reading her own words about her life.
Yes, my copy arrived a few days ago and what a treat it is! A beautiful edition and those letters are such a bonus. There is a lot to enjoy here.