The Year Without a Summer: A Story of 1816

by Ethel Parton

In the year 1816, a strange winter weather pattern enveloped cities, towns and countries from one end of the earth to the other. No sun for days, just the constant companion of freezing cold ensued. People were starving, animals were dying. And then…it got worse…The Colemans, eleven members in all, including the mysterious Grampy Ebenezer, have the strength of their family bond tested time and time again. Struggling to survive the bitter year with every member intact, unearthing a secret long forgotten but powerful enough to change the lives of the people involved. Braving through one of the coldest years on record, they lose so much, but gain something that could never be taken…

Genres: Historical Fiction

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1945

About the author

Ethel Parton, born in 1862, was going to find it hard to escape the happy destiny that awaited her. She had “landed” in a family with an array of forebears who exulted in ideas, reading, writing, and publishing. Ethel’s great-great grandfather had founded The Youth’s Companion; her grandmother was an early best-selling author and woman’s columnist; and her uncle, a well-known biographer, lecturer and essayist. Breathing in that atmosphere, Ethel made it her own and would shape her own perceptions and loves from the rich material. Ethel’s own contribution would be with children’s literature. And for this outcome, place—her own New England seaport town and the people who dwelt in it—would supply a wealth of ingredients to the books she became best known for.

It was in Newburyport, Massachusetts that Ethel, orphaned very early in life, was brought up; first, by the writer-grandmother, (known by her pen name, “Fanny Fern”); later, by her aunt Ellen and her uncle, James Parton. “Never for a moment was I allowed to feel myself an orphan....I had a most happy childhood,” she affirmed.[1] Home-taught until age 11 by the gifted James Parton, Ethel relished the moment she was given free use of his library. She next attended “the remarkable school of Jane Andrews, writer of books for children.” When Ethel graduated from high school (Putnam Free School) in 1880, there was opportunity for college. But young Miss Parton declined it in favor of the educationally rich environment offered by working at home with her Uncle James. She acted as his secretary, literary assistant and sometimes as writing collaborator.

Already in high school, Ethel was composing articles for the Youth’s Companion. As an adult, and a member of its editorial staff for the next forty and more years, she contributed verses and stories both to it and to St Nicholas. Only in later life, after she left Youth’s Companion, did Ethel find time to write in the longer format of books. “I found it was for children I most wished to write.” Thus, Ethel Parton’s first book did not appear until she was nearly 70, and through the next decade, eight more titles came out.