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Cress Delahanty
Cress Delahanty remains one of the most intrepid and beloved teenagers in all American literature. Amid the clotted oil fields and pungent orange groves of rural 1940s California, the young woman explores her family’s citrus ranch, worries about boys, attempts to negotiate the high school social ladder, and suffers embarrassments, big and small, in a tenacious search for her own identity.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1945
About the author
Jessamyn West
70 books39 followersMary Jessamyn West was an American Quaker (originally from Indiana) who wrote numerous stories and novels, notably The Friendly Persuasion (1945).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
January 30, 2009
My mother recommended this book to me when I was a teenager in the late 80s and I read it and liked it then...even though I was at an age where I didn't necessarily want to like the books my mother recommended to me. I found that parts of it really stayed in my memory in a haunting, favorite-book sort of way, which I hadn't expected. Quite by accident, a couple years ago I happened upon a copy in a local thrift store but it was only being used along with some other books as a display for a bookcase. The guy in the shop seemed really amused that I wanted to buy it, it didn't have a price in it, so he sold it to me for 75 cents. This was also a MAJOR SCORE because it is a first edition - no jacket but still in pretty good shape! Anyway, enough gloating. I re-read "Cress" and it is what now I consider to be definitely without a doubt one of my favorite books. It is a coming-of-age novel, somewhat bittersweet, there's a little bit of wry humor, some darkness even, and if read in the context of the time in which it is set, it may even present some deeper insight into the "universal truths" of teenage girlhood - especially if one is a certain type of girl, possibly one who enjoys thinking a lot and wondering about the past and its imprint on the present (this is a little bit about me). I love Cress. I'd really like to meet her.
March 3, 2019
This was one of those books I picked up solely on the cover and the front page description: The Tenderly Funny Story Of A Modern Girl's Growing Up.
This book was first published in 1945, and so I was interested in what was considered to be a "modern girl" during the time my grandmother was growing up.
This book was so delightful. It has exceptional descriptive writing along with a very funny and poignant narration of the young main character, Cress Delahanty. This short little book, is divided into five parts. Each part highlighting a year of Cress's life, from age twelve to sixteen. It reads like a series of short stories. Each little chapter narrates an incident in her life. I laughed out loud at so many parts. But the author did not use obvious humor, or zany antics to entertain her readers; just the true-ness of how young girls think, act, and interpret, life. As a mother of four girls (none yet teenagers) I found myself shaking my head over and over again, as I recalled my own awkward, self-induced drama of going from child to near adult, and making mental notes to remember and prepare for what will be coming down the pipe for me in a few years. Not all fun and fluff, certain chapters took a more darker turn, like the creepy father of a friend hitting on fourteen year old Cress, or Cress realizing that her beloved piano teacher is having an affair. This book was told, really quite re markedly well from not only this young girl's perspective, but her parent's as well. My favorite quote from the book is:
"She was now fourteen...she had more feelings then she knew what to do with, more emotions than her tranquil life permitted her to discharge".
The only reason I would not give it 5 stars is because it ended so abruptly, and with an ending I did not quite understand. But still a terrific book, my a very talented author. I highly recommend, and will be looking for other books by Jessamyn West.
This book was first published in 1945, and so I was interested in what was considered to be a "modern girl" during the time my grandmother was growing up.
This book was so delightful. It has exceptional descriptive writing along with a very funny and poignant narration of the young main character, Cress Delahanty. This short little book, is divided into five parts. Each part highlighting a year of Cress's life, from age twelve to sixteen. It reads like a series of short stories. Each little chapter narrates an incident in her life. I laughed out loud at so many parts. But the author did not use obvious humor, or zany antics to entertain her readers; just the true-ness of how young girls think, act, and interpret, life. As a mother of four girls (none yet teenagers) I found myself shaking my head over and over again, as I recalled my own awkward, self-induced drama of going from child to near adult, and making mental notes to remember and prepare for what will be coming down the pipe for me in a few years. Not all fun and fluff, certain chapters took a more darker turn, like the creepy father of a friend hitting on fourteen year old Cress, or Cress realizing that her beloved piano teacher is having an affair. This book was told, really quite re markedly well from not only this young girl's perspective, but her parent's as well. My favorite quote from the book is:
"She was now fourteen...she had more feelings then she knew what to do with, more emotions than her tranquil life permitted her to discharge".
The only reason I would not give it 5 stars is because it ended so abruptly, and with an ending I did not quite understand. But still a terrific book, my a very talented author. I highly recommend, and will be looking for other books by Jessamyn West.
June 10, 2021
I was thinking about the books that I read as an adolescent and this title came to mind. Cress Delahanty is a delightful portrayal of Cress in her early teen years and in the growing-up process. I think the book is amusing, honest, and paints a picture of a young girl trying to find herself and survive adolescence at the same time. Cress is vulnerable, highly imaginative, and intuitive. I am really enjoying the book. It is a refreshing change from some of the "heavy reading" that I have been doing. I was very impressed by Cress's father. My father would not have bought me the hat. I would highly recommend the book to any early teen or older teen. I would also recommend the book to any woman who wants to remember or relive her adolescence. A really wonderful story.
May 1, 2009
I was given a reading list by my favorite lit teacher, a list I still have 40 some years later. It's still a great list. Cress Delahanty was one of the books on that list. I read this book the first time when I was in high school. I read it every ten years or so. Cress is such a delightful teenage girl, believable when I was 16 and just as believable now that I am the grandmother of a teenage girl. Should be required reading for every mother of a flighty sensitive intelligent teenage girl.
June 14, 2017
More than just a coming of age story about a charmingly precocious young girl from age 12 through 16, this novel was a fascinating look at how adolescence has changed and how it has remained the same.
Girls are no longer required to have maiden aunts chaperone their parties, they don’t get excited about performing folk dances for school assemblies, they don’t wear pleated skirts with cotton blouses to school and change into white dresses before coming down for dinner. And they probably don’t call their parents “mother” and “father.” But while the context has changed the emotional landscape of adolescence probably isn’t all that different -- although most likely it’s much more difficult to navigate for today’s teenage girls than it was for Cress who grew up in the late 30’s and early 40’s.
That was right about the time my mother was a teenager and although she lived on a farm in central Iowa unlike Cress who grew up on a citrus farm in California, I couldn’t help but wonder how much of her emotional coming of age mirrored Cress’s. I was even more curious about whether my grandparents were as sensitive to their daughter’s teenage angst as Cress’s parents were. Because what I enjoyed most about the book was the fact that it reflected the narrative points of view of both Cress and her parents. It was just as much about parenting a teenager as it was about the experience of being one. (And that was back in the days when “parent” was a noun and not a verb, and there were no books or internet sites with information about what that entailed.)
Beautifully written and rich in detail, this gem of a book was loosely structured around the seasons of each year of Cress’s teenage life beginning when she was a schoolgirl of 12 and ending with her first year of college. Interestingly enough, the book was not intended at first to be a novel, but rather a series of short vignettes which appeared in magazines like the New Yorker where Jessamyn West was a frequent contributor.
This book has confirmed what I have always known about the pleasure of reading books that are no longer on best seller lists and are often hard to find.
Girls are no longer required to have maiden aunts chaperone their parties, they don’t get excited about performing folk dances for school assemblies, they don’t wear pleated skirts with cotton blouses to school and change into white dresses before coming down for dinner. And they probably don’t call their parents “mother” and “father.” But while the context has changed the emotional landscape of adolescence probably isn’t all that different -- although most likely it’s much more difficult to navigate for today’s teenage girls than it was for Cress who grew up in the late 30’s and early 40’s.
That was right about the time my mother was a teenager and although she lived on a farm in central Iowa unlike Cress who grew up on a citrus farm in California, I couldn’t help but wonder how much of her emotional coming of age mirrored Cress’s. I was even more curious about whether my grandparents were as sensitive to their daughter’s teenage angst as Cress’s parents were. Because what I enjoyed most about the book was the fact that it reflected the narrative points of view of both Cress and her parents. It was just as much about parenting a teenager as it was about the experience of being one. (And that was back in the days when “parent” was a noun and not a verb, and there were no books or internet sites with information about what that entailed.)
Beautifully written and rich in detail, this gem of a book was loosely structured around the seasons of each year of Cress’s teenage life beginning when she was a schoolgirl of 12 and ending with her first year of college. Interestingly enough, the book was not intended at first to be a novel, but rather a series of short vignettes which appeared in magazines like the New Yorker where Jessamyn West was a frequent contributor.
This book has confirmed what I have always known about the pleasure of reading books that are no longer on best seller lists and are often hard to find.
June 27, 2012
Fun to reread this book that I read several times as a teen & young adult! West's character construction is really excellent. The stories were published individually, & the book is a bit disjointed as a result - not all the threads carry through. But it's a fascinating glimpse of a girl's coming of age in a particular time & place, 1940s California - but West's sensibilities feel very cosmopolitan & contemporary to me.
December 8, 2008
A whimsical and at times gloomy coming of age story. Cress is an amazing character, I only wish the book didn't end and we could read about her adult life. I first read this years ago in junior high or highschool and since then probably have gone back to it a dozen or so times to read again.
March 25, 2014
I could read this book every year I love it so.
March 19, 2019
Like many of my fellow reviewers of this collection of charming stories about irrepressible young teen Cress Delahanty, I became acquainted with this character back in junior high school. I first read a Cress story that was anthologized in a textbook for eighth-grade English. (It was the one in which 13-year-old Cress begs her dad for an exotic—well, ugly—hat that she thinks will make classmate Edwin, on whom she has a little crush, notice her). I enjoyed the tale so much that I remembered the name Cress Delahanty over the decades, and, on a whim, I looked it up. To my delight, I discovered that author Jessamyn West wrote an entire book on the adventures of Cress, who is growing up (between ages 12 and 16) on a orange/grapefruit ranch in California (which must be near the coast, because the beach figures in to some of the stories). The collection I have was published in 1953, but some of the chapters originally appeared individually in various magazines beginning in 1945, so Cress must have been an adolescent just after World War II. There are references to her wearing saddle shoes—definitely a mid-1940s to 1950s thing. Other than that, the stories are really quite timeless. Cress’s adolescent thoughts, frustrations, and longings are typical in any era. At a house party with some girlfriends at age 14, the author describes Cress’s mood. “In their own room Cress and Mavis sat on their twin Hollywood beds. Cress felt boiling with life, as if there were more blood in her veins than her veins could hold, and more veins in her body than her body could contain. She felt, as she sometimes did when reading a noble book, as if the earth and its glories were about to be spread before her and their deepest meanings made clear. Only tonight, the book was her life, and not just the imaginings of some writer, and somewhere, outside this room, a new page was waiting to be turned” (155). There are some gaps between the various adventures that make the reader wonder what happened to lead from one step in Cress’s life to the next, especially as her friendship with Edwin subtly blossoms from friendship to something deeper. Also, there is an episode wherein Cress feels she is in love with a man her father’s age, who is married and struggling with tuberculosis. The man’s wife, not at all offended by Cress’s declaration of love for her husband, invites Cress to come read to the man and play cards with him as he recovers. Cress is thrilled, but we receive no follow-up to this story. The last chapter is sweet, and a bit cryptic, but still leaves us with a good, confident feeling about Cress’s future.
December 11, 2019
The story starts when Cress Delahanty is thirteen years old - just about the age I was when I first read and fell in love with this book. I read and re-read it many times over the next few years, but then, for whatever reason, it fell by the wayside and I forgot about it. I came across an aged brittle paperback copy on the free shelves at the library, and it turns out I still love this book. Firstly, it's evocative of a time that's very much gone, when a commuter working in Los Angeles could return home at night to a farm in the country. Secondly, and what I loved about it as a child, is that it is a clear view into the joy, pain, and sheer confusion of being young and trying to navigate to adulthood without a map. What I love about it now, though, is that it is also a tender view of what it's like to be a parent of a child like that - the simultaneous confidence and panic of knowing AND not knowing that your child will manage to grow up in one piece.
I gave my copy to my 13-year-old niece. I hope she loves it too.
I gave my copy to my 13-year-old niece. I hope she loves it too.
October 4, 2021
Surprisingly current in many ways, Cress Delahanty is a coming of age novel about a young girl with an unusual spirit. Poetic, funny, intrepid, with a bottomless integrity and curiosity, Cress at times seems wiser than her years and then by turns incredibly childlike and innocent. This book must have been considered a bit scandalous when it first appeared, because even now some of the things Cress says and does do cause a bit of a raised eyebrow. But over and over she glides through life's obstacles and oddities with a clear-eyed vision and grasp of reality. Sometimes her dreams and ideas can be quite imaginative, which only makes it all the more fun. The adults in this book, too, surprise and delight. I am pretty sure they are all imaginary, which adds to the reader's delight in the mind of the author.
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July 1, 2019In high school, reading this book, I found it the most exotic thing in the world to grow up in an orange grove, with oil derricks between you and the western, setting sun. At 12, Cress is already so alive, dancing around in a black lace scarf while her parents are away. "I am Cress. There is nothing I will not touch. I will know everything." But she also recovers enough from reading Shelley to feed the cat, clean the house and make supper for her parents when they come home.
I loved this book and Cress' continuing adventures. A literary girl who loves words and being alive. No one greets the morning with as much delight as Cress. Her parents are also quite wonderful and alive, with a moral solidity no less true for never being expressly brought up.
I loved this book and Cress' continuing adventures. A literary girl who loves words and being alive. No one greets the morning with as much delight as Cress. Her parents are also quite wonderful and alive, with a moral solidity no less true for never being expressly brought up.
April 28, 2020
In this collection of short stories, many of which were published AS short stories, we see Crescent, aka Cress, Delahanty, grow from age 13 to age 16. She's a bit of an odd, imaginative and creative duck, with crushes and ideas and friendships that are very typical of girls of these ages.
It's also interesting to "visit" southern California of the 1940's, in neighborhoods where the oil derricks are pumping and all wood burned in fireplaces has oil oozing out of it. There's no real through storyline, but it's an interesting coming of age read, and with the author's usual attention to detail and beautifully drawn characters.
It's also interesting to "visit" southern California of the 1940's, in neighborhoods where the oil derricks are pumping and all wood burned in fireplaces has oil oozing out of it. There's no real through storyline, but it's an interesting coming of age read, and with the author's usual attention to detail and beautifully drawn characters.
April 8, 2016
This was a very important book to me when I was 13 so I decided to give it another read at age 69. Cress's pondering and planning and executing her life certainly set goals for me as a young teen. So I am amazed how much it rings true to me as an old lady. This girl is a real thinker and she made it Ok for me to spin all the wild thoughts in my head. Good read at any age!
October 7, 2008
I like books about thinkers... this is a thirteen year old girl's version of Darkness at Noon. Ha.
May 22, 2023
This loosely related collection of short stories about Cress Delahanty explores her growing up years, from twelve through sixteen. I could learn a thing or two about Sympathetic Motherhood from Mrs. Delahanty. I like that some of the story is told from Cress's parents' perspective. I read this book first when I was about fourteen or fifteen. It makes sense to read it again now, when I have daughters near these ages. But oh how I laughed. I wish I could remember--did I laugh when I was that age?
Here's what I had forgotten and was glad to be reminded of--how INTENSE these ages are. I recommend this book for anyone relating to teenage girls.
"Life won't always be as easy as it is now," one of the less sympathetic characters says to Cress at one point. But, girls, some parts of it will be far, far easier. The years you are in are hard, and complicated, full of splendor and laced with anguish. You are loved, and you will survive this.
Here's what I had forgotten and was glad to be reminded of--how INTENSE these ages are. I recommend this book for anyone relating to teenage girls.
"Life won't always be as easy as it is now," one of the less sympathetic characters says to Cress at one point. But, girls, some parts of it will be far, far easier. The years you are in are hard, and complicated, full of splendor and laced with anguish. You are loved, and you will survive this.
January 11, 2024
This is the closest version to the one I found at an antique store. I first read a Cress story in junior high and was pleased to discover that Jessamyn West's magazine stories had been collected into a book. I like Cress. She's odd as only a teenager can be, but reading about her growth is interesting, made more so by the era during which her tales take place. Ms. West's writing was a little purple prosy at times, but overall, I was reminded of Fitzgerald's Basil & Josephine stories. Cress fell somewhere in between Basil and Josephine, and not much was off limits in the mind and actions of this teenager. If you read it, don't be tempted to take today's issues or concerns and try to imprint them backward through history's lens.
October 18, 2022
Lovely even if she’s slappable at times. I’d read part of this book in a junior high anthology back in my teens, and it stayed with me. Nice to finish at last.
The chapters are quick little vignettes that go to blackout, so a fair amount of the time I wondered, “So what did Ina say the next day?” etc. And Cress is v much in the tradition of Anne Shirley or Scout Finch or Hermione Granger: precociously bright and innocent girls, though she seems to have had better hair.
Fun fact: West was Richard Nixon’s second cousin
The chapters are quick little vignettes that go to blackout, so a fair amount of the time I wondered, “So what did Ina say the next day?” etc. And Cress is v much in the tradition of Anne Shirley or Scout Finch or Hermione Granger: precociously bright and innocent girls, though she seems to have had better hair.
Fun fact: West was Richard Nixon’s second cousin
October 2, 2018
Every time I say I'm done with these episodic bildungsromans I find another one that pulls me in. Cress is dreamy, slightly morbid, and not overly good like some of these characters tend to be (I'm looking at you, Anne, but I love you). It's an interesting one especially if you're looking at other novels in the same vein, from different time periods. Otherwise, it's just a refreshing and short little YA book that has a touch of nostalgia.
May 29, 2023
Coming of age book of a girl in the 40s. Originally a series of short stories so don't expect a constructed novel--yet it works well, showing a girl's life as a series of vignettes that don't always have clean endings suits the subject matter. West excels at description--some of the most gorgeous descriptive writing you'll ever see.
High points for the sections with the Piano Teacher, The House Party, and the Sump Hole.
High points for the sections with the Piano Teacher, The House Party, and the Sump Hole.
December 30, 2017
This was ok, but not quite what I was hoping it would be.
Cress as a person flopped between being enjoyable, strange and annoying which I suppose is quite accurate for a teenage girl!
Her parents were nice though and only had her best interests at heart.
I didn't get what the ending was trying to do at all and it just left me baffled.
Cress as a person flopped between being enjoyable, strange and annoying which I suppose is quite accurate for a teenage girl!
Her parents were nice though and only had her best interests at heart.
I didn't get what the ending was trying to do at all and it just left me baffled.
January 14, 2024
The only way I can describe the main character is "depressingly annoying." She wasn't relatable at all and only made me angry with her. She always seemed so down about everything and everything she did annoyed me. And she never changed either, no character development, just the same annoying character throughout the entire book. I'm only keeping the book because it looks pretty.
February 12, 2025
Sweet and tender
This is a lovely, subtle story of a young girl in Southern Cal I would guess sometime after World War I. It is very evocative of that time and yet universal in its depiction of the emotions of girls and young women. Well worth reading.
This is a lovely, subtle story of a young girl in Southern Cal I would guess sometime after World War I. It is very evocative of that time and yet universal in its depiction of the emotions of girls and young women. Well worth reading.
November 3, 2025
Door de ogen van een tienermeisje de wereld beleven: veelbelovend maar na het lezen vraag je je eigenlijk af wat je net gelezen hebt. Wartaal, een fantaste, eindeloze fantasie. Een boek dat je als dertiger niet kan begrijpen.
May 4, 2017
I'm sure I had read it many, many years ago but I only remembered one scene. Maybe I had read an excerpt (in high school, perhaps).
December 28, 2017
Have no recollection of this book, but just found reference to it in my diary.
June 13, 2020
I don't know how I would feel about this book if I were to read it today, but it totally spoke to me as a young girl - that's how long ago I read it.
August 31, 2020
Lovely little YA novel from the 1940’s, but quite modern in some of its themes. Hoping my daughters will read it too...
October 11, 2022
The ultimate comfort book
December 13, 2022
❤️❤️❤️ I love Jessamyn West’s writings. Very lovely. The last chapter was odd, it felt different. So it ended strangely for me. But I loved it anyway.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews