The Mitford Years Series
by Jan Karon
List Price: $51.88
Pages: Boxed Edition (4 paperbacks)
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0147712564
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Jan Karon was born in Lenoir, North Carolina, in 1937 ("A great year for
the Packard automobile," she says). Her creative skills first came alive
when her family moved to a farm. "On the farm there is time to muse and
dream," she says. "I am endlessly grateful I was reared in the country.
As a young girl I couldn't wait to get off that farm, to go to Hollywood
or New York. But living in those confined, bucolic circumstances was one
of the best things that ever happened to me."
Jan knew that
she wanted to be a writer, and even wrote a novel at the age of ten. Her
first real opportunity as a writer came at age eighteen when she took
a job as a receptionist at an ad agency. She kept leaving her writing
on her boss's desk until he noticed her ability. Soon she was launched
on a forty-year career in advertising. She won assignments in New York
and San Francisco, numerous awards, and finally an executive position
with a national agency.
Recently she
left advertising to write books, and moved to Blowing Rock, North Carolina,
a tiny town of 1,800 perched at 5,000 feet in the Blue Ridge mountains.
"I immediately responded to the culture of village life," says Jan. "And
I must say the people welcomed me. I have never felt so at home."
Blowing Rock
is the model for Mitford, and the similarities are strong. "None of the
people in Mitford are actually based upon anyone in Blowing Rock," says
Jan. "Yet, the spirit of my characters is found throughout this real-life
village. You can walk into Sonny's Grill in Blowing Rock and find the
same kind of guys who hang around Mitford's Main Street Grill."
Jan is quick
to assert that there are Mitfords all over the country, those hundreds
of towns where readers of Jan's books cherish their own cast of eccentric
and beloved characters. Currently, one of Jan's chief delights is getting
to meet those readers. "Some people finish writing and open a bottle of
scotch or a box of chocolates," she says. "My reward is meeting my readers
face-to-face. I think an author is something like a glorified bartender.
My readers tell me all kinds of things about their lives, and I get these
long, long letters. I answer every one, of course."
Jan has a daughter,
Candace Freeland, who is a photojournalist and musician.
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