The Milkweed Ladies

By Louise McNeill

Book Overview

The Milkweed Ladies is written out of deep affection for and intimate knowledge of the lives of rural people and the rhythms of the natural world. It is a personal account of the farm in southern West Virginia where poet Louise McNeill's family has lived for nine generations. The Milkweed Ladies is filled with memorable characters--an herb-gathering granny, McNeill's sailor father, her patient, flower-loving mother, and Aunt Malindy in her "black sateen dress" who "never did a lick of work." McNeill writes movingly of the harsh routines of the lives of her family, from spring plowing to winter sugaring, and of the hold the farm itself has on them and the earth itself on all of us. McNeill juxtaposes the life of the farm with the larger world events that impinge on it, such as the destruction from lumber companies in the 1930s and World War II in the '40s. With her poet's gift for detail and language, McNeill creates a particular world forgotten by many of us, and to some of us, never known.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822954060
• ISBN13: 9780822954064
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Length: 136 Pages
• Weight: 0.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A gentle and profound memoir of an Appalachian family.

Louise McNeill was the poet laureate of her home state of West Virginia, and this book is poetic in its evocation of the richness of rural life in that state. She makes you feel the variety and delight of nature, the security of family and friends, and the uncertainties of change. I reread this book about once a year, and I find it fresh and inspiring every time.