Susan vreeland author biography essay

Selections From
"NOTHING LOST"
A Narrative Autobiography
written for CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS, Vol. 204

In his intermittent diary, Markings, Dag Hammarskjöld wrote, "The only value of a life is its content for others." The only justification, therefore, for the words which follow, is that in the process of recollection, I might discover a content that would serve to encourage others, and at the same time demonstrate the balm of creative endeavor.

A Child's Garden of Words

I lived my happy Southern California childhood in a middle-class neighborhood of boxy pastel stuccoed tract houses. My world consisted of summers in Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, Easter outfits complete with straw bonnet and white gloves, Sunday school with still-loved hymns, the sharp, eye-watering smell of Toni home permanents, the giddy joy of a new workbook in school, dusting and ironing lessons, but also ballet lessons, progressing to en poin