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My Brother's Keeper
Based on the true story of the Collyer brothers.
Inspired by the 1947 New York Times articles detailing items taken from the Collyer's brownstone after their deaths, Davenport constructs a tale of the Holt brothers, one a failing concert pianist and the other a naval architect, and the events that prompted them to become recluses in later life.
Inspired by the 1947 New York Times articles detailing items taken from the Collyer's brownstone after their deaths, Davenport constructs a tale of the Holt brothers, one a failing concert pianist and the other a naval architect, and the events that prompted them to become recluses in later life.
512 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1954
5 people are currently reading
408 people want to read
About the author
Marcia Davenport
59 books25 followersAmerican author and music critic. She was born Marcia Glick, daughter of Bernard Glick and opera singer Alma Gluck, later stepdaughter of violinist Efrem Zimbalist when Alma Gluck remarried.
Davenport traveled extensively with her parents and was educated intermittently at the Friends School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the Shipley School at Bryn Mawr. She began at Wellesley College but eloped to Pittsburgh in 1923 to marry Fred D. Clarke. Eventually she earned her B.A. at the University of Grenoble. Her first child was born in 1924, but in 1925 she divorced Clarke.
She took an advertising copywriting job to support herself and her daughter. In 1928 she began at the editorial staff of The New Yorker, where she worked until 1931. In 1929, she married Russell Davenport, who soon after became editor of Fortune. Davenport's second daughter was born in 1934. That same year she began as the music critic of Stage magazine.
Davenport had close ties through her mother and stepfather to the classical music world and particularly to the heady opera world of Europe and America in the first half of the 20th century. She was first celebrated as a writer for her first book, Mozart, the first published American biography of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Her marriage to Russell Davenport ended in 1944.
She also wrote several popular novels, notably The Valley of Decision, a 1940s bestseller made into a successful movie with Greer Garson and Gregory Peck.
Davenport traveled extensively with her parents and was educated intermittently at the Friends School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the Shipley School at Bryn Mawr. She began at Wellesley College but eloped to Pittsburgh in 1923 to marry Fred D. Clarke. Eventually she earned her B.A. at the University of Grenoble. Her first child was born in 1924, but in 1925 she divorced Clarke.
She took an advertising copywriting job to support herself and her daughter. In 1928 she began at the editorial staff of The New Yorker, where she worked until 1931. In 1929, she married Russell Davenport, who soon after became editor of Fortune. Davenport's second daughter was born in 1934. That same year she began as the music critic of Stage magazine.
Davenport had close ties through her mother and stepfather to the classical music world and particularly to the heady opera world of Europe and America in the first half of the 20th century. She was first celebrated as a writer for her first book, Mozart, the first published American biography of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Her marriage to Russell Davenport ended in 1944.
She also wrote several popular novels, notably The Valley of Decision, a 1940s bestseller made into a successful movie with Greer Garson and Gregory Peck.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
July 15, 2010
A highly melodramatic version of the story of the Collyer brothers, this book recounts the lives of Seymour and Randall Holt, a pair of brothers who turn to compulsive hoarding, though it ultimately kills them. Like the Collyer brothers, the Holt brothers closed off various rooms of their spacious NYC home with newspapers and rigged tunnel systems to allow them to move around. However, these tunnels were also booby-trapped to thwart would-be burglars, and it is one of these booby-traps that ultimately causes the death of Randall Holt as he attempts to bring food to his elder brother. Days later, confined to a wheelchair and blind, Seymour perishes as well with no one to care for him.
Davenport begins her story with the brothers' childhoods, in which every aspect of their lives is controlled by their strict and overbearing grandmother who is bent on preventing them from turning out like her now-deceased husband. Apparently he was quite the hell-raiser, and she was insistent on raising fine young men. As children, Seymour is the stronger one, the one who attempts to stand up to his grandmother and suffers the consequences of it. Randall is pampered and coddled by their mother, indulged in his music, and it is feared that he is destined to become a "sissy." However, as Seymour loses his sight in middle age, it is Randall who finds his strength and backbone while Seymour becomes more and more reclusive. Yet in the end, they both begin to fear the outside world and do everything in their power to remain apart from it.
I found it interesting that the house itself, in which the brothers and their mother before them retreat away from the world, becomes a bit character. It seems to draw the brothers in, as if it casts a spell over them that they cannot escape from, until they literally suffocate under the weight of the house and its contents.
Though it is obvious that the brothers suffer from the mental illness that causes compulsive hoarding, Davenport treats the subject matter with compassion, showing how severe childhood trauma can have lasting consequences, even until death.
The book itself reads somewhat like a soap opera in parts, devolving into sentimental language when there is any discussion between a male and female character, but considering that the book was originally published in 1954, it is only to be expected.
I read a condensed version of this book.
Davenport begins her story with the brothers' childhoods, in which every aspect of their lives is controlled by their strict and overbearing grandmother who is bent on preventing them from turning out like her now-deceased husband. Apparently he was quite the hell-raiser, and she was insistent on raising fine young men. As children, Seymour is the stronger one, the one who attempts to stand up to his grandmother and suffers the consequences of it. Randall is pampered and coddled by their mother, indulged in his music, and it is feared that he is destined to become a "sissy." However, as Seymour loses his sight in middle age, it is Randall who finds his strength and backbone while Seymour becomes more and more reclusive. Yet in the end, they both begin to fear the outside world and do everything in their power to remain apart from it.
I found it interesting that the house itself, in which the brothers and their mother before them retreat away from the world, becomes a bit character. It seems to draw the brothers in, as if it casts a spell over them that they cannot escape from, until they literally suffocate under the weight of the house and its contents.
Though it is obvious that the brothers suffer from the mental illness that causes compulsive hoarding, Davenport treats the subject matter with compassion, showing how severe childhood trauma can have lasting consequences, even until death.
The book itself reads somewhat like a soap opera in parts, devolving into sentimental language when there is any discussion between a male and female character, but considering that the book was originally published in 1954, it is only to be expected.
I read a condensed version of this book.
March 5, 2012
I read this book when I was a teenager in the 60's. I read it because my mother said it was good. At the time it was ok. Thinking about it now, it must of been better than I thought, as 48 years later I still remember it.
February 21, 2010
Well worth finding this out-of-print book (I've bought it three times now and read it twice [I lost one copy to a borrower and one copy to disintegration:]. Based on the lives of the Collyer Brothers (look 'em up). A fascinating, disquieting, and somewhat claustrophobic read...but I challenge you to put it down once you get past the first chapter. (Don't know REAL date finished.)
October 6, 2009
A highly-romanticized re-imagining of the tragic Collyer Brothers of New York City, whose Fifth Avenue mansion was found to be crammed with over a hundred tons of refuse, bundled newspapers, and household items - Davenport herein calls them Seymour and Randall Holt, and the seeds of their eccentricity go back to their childhoods, overseen by their stern, forbidding grandmother who ties them up financially for decades after her death. Both men become involved with the same woman, with interesting results. Seymour eventually goes blind and is partially paralyzed, and Randall returns to care for him. The brothers withdraw almost completely from the world, ignoring bill collectors, bankers, and the Internal Revenue Service.
The Collyer Brothers were still comparatively recent news when Davenport's novel was published in 1954 - they had died within weeks of each other in 1947 under horrible circumstances, trapped together in their over-stuffed mansion...Davenport - best known today, if at all, for her biography of Mozart and her bestselling novel THE VALLEY OF DECISION (about a Pennsylvania steel dynasty) - was one of the last novelists nurtured by the legendary Scribner editor Maxwell Perkins, whose other authors included Hemingway and popular storytellers such as Taylor Caldwell and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. She does an excellent job of describing the brothers' descent into madness.
The Collyer Brothers were still comparatively recent news when Davenport's novel was published in 1954 - they had died within weeks of each other in 1947 under horrible circumstances, trapped together in their over-stuffed mansion...Davenport - best known today, if at all, for her biography of Mozart and her bestselling novel THE VALLEY OF DECISION (about a Pennsylvania steel dynasty) - was one of the last novelists nurtured by the legendary Scribner editor Maxwell Perkins, whose other authors included Hemingway and popular storytellers such as Taylor Caldwell and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. She does an excellent job of describing the brothers' descent into madness.
April 3, 2013
What a sad story but beautifully written and paced story! Very few good things happen in this story of two brothers, Randall and Seymour, whom end up recluses in their booby trapped home in a formerly upscale New York neighborhood. This book was on my Dad's shelf for years and I decided to take it to the beach and I was hooked right away. It is a bit melodramatic but it covers a lot of ground and time.
There is a love triangle, hoarding, illegitimate children and an evil Grandmother. Great and believable stuff. This book covers a period of history I happen to love, Late Victorian/Edwardian America, right through the 1940s and the book chronicles it well.
There is a love triangle, hoarding, illegitimate children and an evil Grandmother. Great and believable stuff. This book covers a period of history I happen to love, Late Victorian/Edwardian America, right through the 1940s and the book chronicles it well.
August 22, 2019
I’m not kidding...it took me over 10 years and scouring the country to finish this book. Let me explain: it was my grandmother’s and when she died, I figured I should read it to feel close to her. It was hard to get in to as a 16 year old kid. I kept starting and stopping and forgetting what happened. Then...I went to college. My mom threw it away! She didn’t know how much it meant to me. Fast forward 6 years. I told my friend about the book I wished I could finish and he searched alllll over the country to get it for me. It is so incredibly special to me but it was very slow. It’s a good story but it was just not what I had hoped.
November 19, 2015
Based on the lives of the Collyer Brothers, Marcia Davenport has weaved the story so wonderfully and taken it to a whole new level. It made me wonder as to how someone who is extremely rich can be leveled to such a poor and filthy standard of living...
January 14, 2018
MASTERPIECE
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April 15, 2020DURING MY 36 YEARS WORKING IN THE ACCOUNTING OFFICE, ONE OF MY THREE BOSSES/OWNERS OF THE BUSINESS WAS A WOMAN. SHE TOOK AN INTEREST IN MY MUSIC AND ART AND MY LOVE OF WRITING AND ALL THE ARTS - EXCEPT SHE KNEW I DETESTED READING BOOKS. I WAS TOO BUSY TO WASTE MY TIME READING STUPID BOOKS WHEN I COULD LEARN MUCH MORE FROM REAL LIFE WITH MY EYES AND MY EARS. SOOOOOOOO ONE SUMMER THERE WAS NEARLY NO WORK FOR ME TO DO AT THE OFFICE OTHER THAN ANSWERING PHONE AND SOME BOOKKEEPING STUFF AND FILING, BUT MOST OF MY DAYS WERE BORING, AND I HELPED ANYBODY IN THE OFFICE THAT NEED ANY HELP. THEN ONE DAY THE WOMAN BOSS SAYS TO ME "I HAVE A JOB FOR YOU THIS SUMMER AND FALL. AND IT REQUIRES NOTHING BUT YOUR EYES - I KNOW YOU HATE TO READ, AND I LOVE TO READ AND MY FATHER WAS AN ENGLISH TEACHER AND HE TAUGHT ME THE LOVE OF READING, AND I KNOW YOUR DISLIKE OF READING IS THAT YOU MUST BE READING THE WRONG BOOKS". ONE OF THE BOOKS I READ THAT SUMMER WAS "MY BROTHER'S KEEPER". IN SUMMATION OF THIS PARTICULAR CLASSIC BROTHERS BOOK, I MUST ADMIT I LEARNED MANY THINGS - ABOUT THE LOVE OF BROTHER TO BROTHER, HOW IT WAS TO LIVE AROUND THE TIME OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION IN NEW YORK CITY AND HAD NO FOOD TO EAT AND HOW THEY SURVIVED, JUST A LOT OF THINGS. YES, THE CLASSICS MY OLD BOSS GAVE TO ME EACH TIME I FINISHED A BOOK THERE CAME ANOTHER, BECAME ENGRAINED IN MY BRAIN. AND SUCH IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN BOOKS BECOME CLASSICS. AND THE SAME GOES FOR MUSIC AND FOR ART. FOR SOME REASON, MY BRAIN AND EYES AND EARS SEE THRU A LOT OF SHIT AND I RECOGNIZE THE "CLASSICS" OF ALL KINDS OF ART.
January 21, 2018
This story was exceptionally good! This historical fiction is loosely based on the true story of the Collyer Brothers of New York. The author deftly wove fiction into the true history and came out with a very good and believable read. I wish that Marcia Davenport had written more fiction. Her The Valley of Decision doesn't look as interesting to me, but I may have to try it.
April 15, 2018
Completely absorbing!! Unbelievably well developed. It was the kind of book I didn’t want to put down but didn’t want it to end either. Based on a true story. This book started as a newspaper article from the early 1950’s. The fact that it’s based on fact makes it so much more engrossing. I loved it
April 26, 2019
Read this book many years ago, would love to read it again. It was a really good read! It was written based on the items found in the Collier brothers home and the story is pieced together. Not necessarily all true, but quite possible. Loved this intriguing story!
June 30, 2020
This old book is worth a read by modern readers because it is not only engrossing and well written, but it points to a fate that could afflict anyone: mental deterioration. Moreover, hoarding is a particularly American problem. Getting rid of stuff is the answer.
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January 15, 2022A haunting, sweeping novel of Manhattan, which I read too long ago to rate.
The fictional account of the Collyer Brothers, born to wealth and privilege, whose eccentricities bring them to total isolation for their last years lived in their cluttered mansion.
The fictional account of the Collyer Brothers, born to wealth and privilege, whose eccentricities bring them to total isolation for their last years lived in their cluttered mansion.
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August 10, 2020No rating. DNF (barely started really). I thought this was a historical fiction about the Collier brothers but it’s just a story using their life as an idea.
November 13, 2020
Marcia Davenport's "My Brother's Keeper" is the American version of Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights."
June 25, 2021
So creep along creepy I couldn't tear my watering eyes away from the compelling words. They still haunt me after a week of reading. Grand mommy dearest!
November 22, 2022
Interesting--different from anything else I've read. Horrifying to know it was based on a real family.
August 17, 2023
Interesting story of the lives of brothers living as recluses in New York City.
June 12, 2024
For an older book, it kept my attention and knowing it was a fictional account of real people was fascinating. Now I want to know what happened to the Collyer brothers.
June 11, 2018
My Brother's Keeper, Marcia Davenport, Scribner's, 1954 1st edition (A), 457 pages. VG book in VG DJ. Description: Book; Green boards with gold block on the spine with the title knocked out, as is the publisher's name. author's last in gold, gold devise above title block and two devised knocked out of a gold stripe also on the spine. Author's name scripted in gold on front board. Dust Jacket; Deco design by Susan Foster of newspaper articles on yellow with high rise building. Design wraps to the spine, rear panel is Philippe Halsman's photo of the author, front flap not price clipped, rear flap states this is a book-of-the-month club selection. Condition: Book; Very good. Bright, tight and clean copy with no markings to the pages or cover. Gold blocks on the spine are bright with a hint of rubbing around the edges, top and bottom of spine lightly rubbed, as are the points, else near fine. Dust jacket; Very good. Bright and clean and without marks but several closed tears along the top and bottom of spine, chips to top and bottom of rear panel as well as both top points. Not sunned but lightly soiled to all panels. Also, please note there is a reflection in the photo along the lower edges of the book. This is light bouncing off the tablecloth and not a fault of the book.
August 6, 2021
This book is about as interesting as a Pay Toilet In A Diarrhea Ward! It features a domineering old bag of a grandmother (Sabina Holt) who rules the world (or at least her house) with an iron hand. No one has the balls to contradict her - - - She makes slaves of all the servants, she treats her forty-four year old son like a three year old, she hates her son's wife (Lily) who plays the piano and later turns into a mental defective and recluse! The older of the two brothers is Seymour who wants to be a marine architect, but gets sidetracked by some opera-singing slut named Renata Tosi; Seymour ends up going blind due to progressive high-grade myopia and eventual detachment of the retina - - - big deal! Randall Holt is the younger brother, but he is such a goody-goody that you wouldn't believe it! Both brothers do it to Renata, who invariably becomes pregnant, but no one knows who the father is and no one really cares. John is the illegitimate son whom Randall takes back to Italy (where Renata went) and dumps him with her. Then Randall goes back to New York where he and Seymour live out the rest of their lives in a rat-infested hole of a brownstone in the Chelsea district. Seymour turns into the grandmother and dies of starvation. Randall gets killed in one of his own booby traps. The book ends up with some stupid attorney trying to unravel the Holt brothers mystery - - - sounds like Citizen Kane, doesn't it? Personally, I recommend that you give this book a PASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The End.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 10, 2010
My Brother's Keeper is a novel by Marcia Davenport based on the true story of the Collyer brothers. This book is difficult to find but if you are able grab it. Why, asks Author Davenport, did devoted brothers of good family and good education die in squalor and madness when they had scads of money in the bank? The answer: Momism. Old Grandma Holt dominated her married son, his gentle wife and their two young sons. Just as daddy is about to break from the Milquetoast mold, he is kicked in the head by a horse and killed. By the time the boys are freed by Grandma's own death, one is too crushed to stand up to life, the other is beginning to show that he has inherited some of Grandma's tyranny. Both are attracted to the same lusty Italian opera singer, and when she bears a child, neither brother knows which is the father, and the girl can't tell. Bit by bit, they withdraw to a life of bitterness, become the butts of neighborhood hoodlums, booby-trap the house and retire to an existence of unwashed queerness. When the police finally break into the house, the stench is pretty bad. Fascinating story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 22, 2022
Wonderful book. The Colyer Bros. are just too good to have been true. I wish a movie would have been made about their lives. I would also suggest reading "Ghostly Men" and "°Unstrung Heroes" by Franz Lidz. These are also great books about the brothers.
August 22, 2011
One of the creepiest yet most compelling novels I've ever read, and so depressing that while well written, I can't bring myself to give it four stars. I picked it up years ago in a New York library and three hours later was still reading, horrified but unable to walk away. As I recall, in this version the mother was the villain and the psychological cruelty she exerted over her sons gave me nightmares for months. This was based on a real life story which is the basis for Doctorow's new novel, Homer and Langley, and I'd be curious to know how they compare. On the other hand, I don't really want to revisit it all again...
August 31, 2012
I read this book because it was recommended to me by someone at work. After I started it, I realized I had already read it & though I could predict some of the things that happened, I did not remember all of it. It is not the type of book that I read now, so based on that subjective feeling, I would've rated it a 3; however, it is a good book & an interesting topic. I was told that it is based on a true story of 2 brothers, living in the New York area, & how they eventually became hoarders. If you hae any interest in hoarding at all, I would say it would be a good book to read because it attempts to explain how some people end up that way.
August 11, 2011
I read this a really long time ago, but I will never forget it. It haunts me at times.(Can you spell "hoarders"?)
This usage of a newspaper article inspiring a fictional novel was MY inspiration for using this technique as a writing prompt for my fifth graders over the years. I had some very talented writers!
In trying to find this book to add it to my Good Reads list just now, I happened upon the Wikopedia article. I'd like to share that with you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Broth...
Maybe it's time for that movie???
This usage of a newspaper article inspiring a fictional novel was MY inspiration for using this technique as a writing prompt for my fifth graders over the years. I had some very talented writers!
In trying to find this book to add it to my Good Reads list just now, I happened upon the Wikopedia article. I'd like to share that with you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Broth...
Maybe it's time for that movie???
October 28, 2011
Recommended to me by one of my Ohio Bookies as her all time favorite book - had to read it! Written in 1954, our library system found one old, taped together copy for me, and reading it confirmed my belief that well written books may get lost but can't be forgotten! The tale of two brothers, Randall and Seymore who are so evilly influenced by their paternal, wicked, wicked grandmother that they can't begin to fulfill their potential and degenerate into a life of misery. Sad, sad but oh, so good story!
October 14, 2015
Fascinating book. I was intrigued when an 86-year-old friend of mine made a reference to being like Colyer. I didn't get the reference. Of course, I didn't. The Colyer brothers died about the time I was born. This book was published in 1953. I checked it out of the library and read the nearly 450 pages in 3 sittings. We only have one life on this earth. It is so sad that it can be wasted by circumstances beyond our control, beyond our ability to understand, by the cruelty of others who hold our fate in their hands.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews