The best historic memoirs that speak to the love of place

There is no finer memoir celebrating a love of place than Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory. His opening lines take you right into the heart of the kitchen in a rural Alabama home where he lived as a young boy with an elderly distant cousin in the late 1920s. Those few cherished years would influence his writing and life for as long as he lived.

Writing in concise, elegant language, Capote centers his brief memoir around one Thanksgiving and Christmas when he was seven and his beloved cousin, Miss Souk Faulk, was in her late sixties. Perhaps it is because I have hosted Thanksgiving for my family for years, that I so appreciate Capote’s ability to capture, with humor and poignancy, the power of traditions with those you love.

I have never been to Africa and probably will not get there, but because of Karen Blixen’s haunting memoir, Out of Africa, I feel I have seen its beauty and allure. Living on and managing her coffee plantation near the Ngong Hills of British East Africa (now Kenya) from 1913-1931, Blixen’s love of place is clearly evident in her mesmerizing descriptions of her home, the people who lived beside her, and the African wilderness that surrounded it all. 

With lyrical language, Blixen brings to life the gentle elephants traipsing across the plains, the roar of the lions, the herd of running zebras, but more importantly, the captivating images of an environment that has long since disappeared for all. In my dreams, I am there.

Bewitched by the fragrant fells, humble farms, and verdant scenery of Yorkshire, England, James Herriot, a 23-year-old veterinarian, found his love of place and stayed there till the end of his life. Set in the 1930s, All Creatures Great and Small documents not only the charming vistas of Herriot’s veterinary world, but also the beguiling animals and characters who gave voice to this enchanting landscape.

As a young teacher back in the 1970s, I came across his memoir and was immediately smitten even before it became a wildly popular series. Although I did not know it at the time, I think Herriot’s approach to finding a story in the everydayness of life subconsciously influenced my own writing of personal essays and memoir. To him, I tip my pen.

Although times have certainly changed since Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote Gift from the Sea in 1955, the struggle to define ourselves and our relationships has not. Secluding herself on an almost deserted island, Lindbergh uses a variety of distinctive beach shells as writing prompts to philosophically examine the way we live and relate to each other.

The simplicity of being isolated in a rustic cottage beside a beautiful beach with only seagulls as companions allows Lindbergh the freedom to explore and question the choices we make. In today’s noisy, frenetic world, who among us wouldn’t like to escape to an island to contemplate our life’s trajectory? A soft breeze, the rhythmic music of the waves, the sun on our backs, and time to think. Sign me up.

It is no secret that Mark Twain loved the Mississippi River. Most of us know this from his classic novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. But Life on the Mississippi, Twain’s memoir of his youthful adventures as a steamboat pilot in training published in 1883, gives us a deeper picture not only of the author but also the Mississippi.

Like a meandering current, Twain weaves together a historic journey of the river, life on a steamboat, the changing landscape, and the challenges of navigation. Throw in a few tall tales and signature Mark Twain philosophy, and you feel as if you know the author and the river intimately. As a Midwesterner, I sometimes visit the Mighty Miss, and like Twain, I am always moved by its sweeping grandeur and power.