Gift from the Sea: 50th-Anniversary Edition - Softcover

Lindbergh, Anne Morrow

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0679732411 ISBN 13: 9780679732419

Publisher: Pantheon, 1991

In this inimitable classic, Anne Morrow Lindbergh shares her meditations on youth and age, love and marriage, peace, solitude, and contentment during a brief vacation by the sea.

Drawing inspiration from the the shells on the shore, Lindbergh's musings on the shape of a woman's life will bring new understanding to readers, male and family, at any stage of life. A mother of five and professional writer, she casts an unsentimental eye at the trappings of modern life that threaten to overwhelm us -- the timesaving gadgets that complicate our lives, the overcommitments that take us from our families -- and by recording her own thoughts in a brief escape from her everyday demands, she guides her readers to find a space for contemplation and creativity in their own lives. With great wisdom and insight she describes the shifting shapes of relationships and marriage, presenting a vision of a life lived in enduring and evolving partnership. A groundbreaking work when it was first published, this book has retained its freshness as it has been rediscovered by generations of readers and is no less current today.

Review:

I found a 1955 printing of this book in an old waterfront cabin and was struck by the care with which the previous owner had read it. Eve (the name inscribed inside the front cover and then again above the heading for chapter 3) made pencil marks on nearly every paragraph of the book, underlining a phrase, highlighting many passages with strong vertical marks, scratching out some words that she seems to have found superfluous and even x-ing out whole sections that apparently missed their mark with her altogether. Two rusting paper clips isolate several pages, absent any marking at all. Anne Morrow Lindbergh's lyrical words are still relevant and presage so many of the themes of today's most popular books: simplicity, peaceful solitude, caring for the soul, a woman finding her place in society and life. I heard that the woman who had lived in the cabin had actually passed away some time before. Thank you, Eve, for your gift... from the sea.

From the Inside Flap:

modern-day classic. "Gift from the Sea is like a shell itself in its small and perfect form . . . It tells of light and life and love and the security that lies at the heart."--New York Times Book Review.

• Publisher: Pantheon
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0679732411
• ISBN 13: 9780679732419
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144