A Place In The Country

Many years ago I was at a fund raiser for the Hudson Valley Philharmonic Orchestra in Stone Ridge, New York. It was at Lord & Lady so-and-sos run down at the heels estate, which was all tricked up with holiday decorations to hide the decay. It was a memorable night because the cocktail party conversation drove me into their fantastic library. What great books they had! I had fun just pulling them off the shelves and learning all about them through their collection. I thought of this next when, after several years, I read a piece in the New Yorker Magazine about a successful hunt for a country home, and the trials and tribulations of new home ownership. I recognized the house as the estate the fund raiser was in. That article became the book, "A Place In The Country" by Laura Shaine Cunningham. It seems as if everyone, including Michael Korda, had to write books like this after that, but I always liked hers the best.