Attic of Dreams: a Memoir

by Marilyn Webb Neagley

Overview

A lyrical memoir that begins in a quiet Vermont village with memories of Marilyn's parents, who own a popular restaurant and lively night spot that sits next to their home. While her mother disappears into addiction, Marilyn grapples with feelings of abandonment, though she recalls being uplifted by the village, by her dreams, and by the kindness of others.

In young adulthood, she lands on a beautiful estate known as Shelburne Farms, where she helps to launch valuable movements for the region: local food and farmers' markets, outdoor childhood education, and the stewardship of natural resources. But her work is not without cost to her personal life. She discovers that her interest in protecting the outer world begins to heal her inner self. The two are deeply intertwined.

Attic of Dreams examines family dysfunction while humor counters tragedy, and forgiveness counters blame. Trust and love emerge as the journey home to wholeness continues.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781578691319
Publisher:	Rootstock Publishing
Publication date:	09/05/2023
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	767,034
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.65(d)

About the Author

Marilyn Webb Neagley has lived her life in Vermont. She is the author of two previous books and the co-editor of another. Her book, "Walking through the Seasons," received an IPPY gold medal for best northeastern non-fiction. She has been a Vermont Public Radio commentator and has written essays for her local newspaper. Marilyn was raised in Ascutney, Vermont. She and her husband now reside in Shelburne.

Editorial Reviews

2023-07-24
Neagley combines a personal memoir with the history of a well-known tourist site.

The author presents the reader with two fascinating stories that gradually come together. She begins with a personal account of growing up in a Russian immigrant family and coping with her parents’ alcoholism. She then recounts how, in the early 1960s, an era of more limited opportunities for women (“Expectations are to possibly get a job, usually in typically female areas of employment, get married, and have children. Very few mothers work outside the home”), she developed a professional career in interior design that brought her into contact with the Webb family of Vermont’s Shelburne Farms (and for a time, into a marriage to scion Alec Webb). The rest of the book is focused on the transformation of Shelburne Farms from a private estate to the tourist attraction it has become and on Neagley’s life as part of the Webb family. This admixture of personal history and chronicle of the Shelburne Farms estate is engaging to read throughout, though it works best when addressing the transformation of Shelburne Farms, detailing the search for models of transforming (and financing the transformation of) a private estate into a public resource and business. Among the comparable sites the stewards of Shelburne Farms consulted, including Colonial Williamsburg, one that curiously never seems to have come up is the Biltmore Estate, which has an even longer history of a being a productive working concern. Also, given the author’s international travel and professional education, the reader might ask why there was no consultation with the British National Trust considering their extensive experience with the preservation of stately homes for access to the public. Still, the book is a fascinating and worthwhile account of what happens when a family estate must reinvent itself.

A personal story effectively complements this historical account of Shelburne Farms.

Kirkus Reviews