Brook Willow

by Nelia Gardner White

On a foggy night, on the riverfront of an eastern city, a policeman discovers a lost woman. She is so ugly she is almost handsome, and her clothes are distinguished. As is the habit of policemen in that section, he telephones for young Dr. Jake Blum, the psychiatrist of the city hospital. Jake recognizes the woman as Mary Pelotti, the world famous pianist, and in the few minutes he and Mary talk together, an uncanny intimacy develops between them. She insists she is truly lost because she cannot again find Brook Willow.

276 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1944

About the author

Nelia Gardner White, one of five children of a Methodist minister, lived in several small towns as she was growing up. Though the family had very little money, the atmosphere of the home was happy; life was filled with "books, friends, and fun." By taking many different sorts of jobs, White was able to attend Syracuse University for two years (1911-13) and the Emma Willard Kindergarten School (1913-15). After several years as a kindergarten teacher, she married a lawyer. The couple had two children.

During World War II, as a guest of the British Ministry of Information, White wrote articles about England. In 1948 she won the $8,000 prize in the Westminster Press Fiction Contest with her novel No Trumpet Before Him. White gives great credit for her start as a writer to Maude Stewart, a teacher in the kindergarten school who helped her toward an understanding of human character and of the various relationships between people. White contributed articles about child care to a kindergarten magazine. She began writing fiction with stories for kindergarten children and four novels for young people and then branched out to adult fiction. The rest of her life is a record of much industry and a great deal of success. Hundreds of her stories appeared in such popular magazines as the American, Ladies' Home Journal, People's Home Journal, Midland, McCall's, Pictorial Review, Forum, and Good Housekeeping. In addition, she wrote 25 novels.