Gladys Taber and Stillmeadow

I found this photo of the Stillmeadow house in Google Images

I came across my first Stillmeadow book by Gladys Taber while we still lived in Washington state. I read how Gladys and her friend Jill wandered the back roads of Connecticut weekend after weekend, looking for a country place where they could raise their children and dogs. I often thought of how they waded through knee-deep snow up the driveway of the ancient house that was to become their Stillmeadow, little realizing that years later our family would slide across an icy driveway to find our own bit of history in our own antique colonial house. I remembered Gladys' description of the old wavy glass in the small-paned windows of her late 1600s house, especially when I looked through our own wavy glass in our late 1700s home. Gladys' house, when she found it, had wide pine floors patched with flattened tobacco tins; our house came to us with graffiti-laden walls.

When we first moved to New England from Washington, we headed for the local library--Beez to find some fiction while I took a look at the books by Gladys Taber. He found me there, sitting in an armchair and gulping back sobs, holding the latest Stillmeadow book. It had an introductory note by Gladys' daughter, explaining that her mother had passed away just before the book was scheduled for publication. When he understood that my friend Gladys had died, he took me home and gave me a cup of hot tea. I felt like I had lost a member of my family.

Over the years I collected as many Stillmeadow books as I could find in used book stores. Now, with the Internet, I would be able to put together a similar collection in an afternoon and have the books delivered to my door. For some reason, when we packed to move from New Hampshire to New Mexico, I gave away all those books to lighten our load. I'm sorry not to have them now.

Here is a list of books by Gladys Taber, including the books about Stillmeadow. I found the list on this website. (Note: Sorry, that website is no longer there as of 4/14/10).

Lady of the Moon (1928)
Lyonnesse (1929)
Late Climbs the Sun (1934)
Tomorrow May Be Fair (1935)
The Evergreen Tree (1937)
Long Tails and Short (1938)
A Star to Steer By (1938)
This is for Always (1938)
Harvest at Stillmeadow (1940) -The First Stillmeadow Book
Nurse in Blue (1943)
The Heart has April Too (1944)
Give Us This Day (1944)
Give Me the Stars (1945)
Especially Spaniels (1945) New Edition (1949)
The Family on Maple Street (1946)
Daisy and Dobbin:Two Little Seahorses (1948)
Flower Arranging for the American Home (1947) New Edition (1948)
Stillmeadow Kitchen (1947) New Edition (1951)
The Book of Stillmeadow (1948)
Especially Father (1949)
The First Book of Dogs (1949)
The First Book of Cats (1950)
Stillmeadow Seasons (1950)
When Dogs Meet People (1952)
Stillmeadow and Sugarbridge (1953) with Barbara Webster
Stillmeadow Daybook (1955)
Mrs. Daffodil (1957)
What Cooks at Stillmeadow, the Favorite Recipes of Gladys Taber (1958)
Spring Harvest (1959)
Stillmeadow Sampler (1959)
The Stillmeadow Road (1962)
Another Path (1963)
Gladys Taber's Stillmeadow Cookbook (1965)
Flower Arranging (1965)
One Dozen and One (1966)
Stillmeadow Calendar (1967)
Especially Dogs...Especially at Stillmeadow (1968)
Stillmeadow Album (1969)
Amber: A Very Personal Cat (1970)
My Own Cape Cod (1971)
My Own Cookbook: From Stillmeadow and Cape Cod (1972)
Country Chronicle (1974)
The Best Of Stillmeadow (1976)
Harvest of Yesterdays (1976)
Conversations with Amber (1978)
Still Cove Journal (1981)
Reveries at Stillmeadow