Description

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WHEN LILACS LAST is an historical biography of Bernard McLaughlin, a man born in Limestone, Maine, in 1898 who came to be known as "The Dean of Maine Gardeners." The four-acre lilac and perennial garden he created behind his South Paris, Maine, home achieved prominence not just in the Northeast, but nationally as well. Yet, when he died in 1995 at the age of 97, he had made no provision for the garden in his will, the result of which was a public "Save the Garden" action involving many diverse factions. At the center of this narrative is an examination of the garden acquisition conflict. At the same time, WHEN LILACS LAST is an examination of McLaughlin's life, of his relationship to his adopted son and how the consequence of that affected the garden's outcome. And WHEN LILACS LAST is a first-person narrative with the author being very much a part of the story. This book is essentially regional in its particulars, firmly rooted in Maine and depending upon Yankee, Down East values and perspectives. But it is ultimately universal in its examination of the human heart.

About the Author

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Penelope Anne Schwartz has been the director of an academic journals publishing company, a blue-water sailor, litigation paralegal, tree farmer, wife, mother and grandmother. A native of Traverse City, Michigan, she lived in the state of Maine from 1970-2014. She holds a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan, and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine. Her essay collection SLIPPERY MEN was chosen by Katha Pollitt for the Stonecoast Book Prize, and published by New Rivers Press in 2008.It received Honorable Mention in Nonfiction from the Maine Literary Awards in 2009. She published a memoir of her writing life, PENELOPE: WEAVING AND UNRAVELING, A WRITING AND REVISING LIFE in 2015. She is the recipient of the 2009 Individual Artist Fellowship in the Literary Arts as well as a Good Idea Grant, both awarded by the Maine Arts Commission. Other honors include an AWP Intro Journal Award in Nonfiction and Notable mention in Best American Essays 2005, 2009, and 2011. Her work is featured in numerous literary magazines. She has taught nonfiction writing and literature at the University of Maine, Farmington, and at Southern Maine Community College. Penelope Anne Schwartz lives in Arcata, California and teaches in the English Department of the College of the Redwoods in Eureka.