When she wasn’t doing chores, raising livestock and making certain that the farm was running in optimal condition, she was doing what she could to maintain the peace and comfort of a household that had several dogs and cats.Įach chapter in the Book of a Stillmeadow focuses on a particular month on the farm. Gladys’s life on the farm was a busy one. Stillmeadow is a real place, one whose road to fame began when Gladys Taber and a friend purchased a Sudbury, Connecticut farmhouse and turned it into a home within which they could live with their families. Gladys uses this book to bring that seemingly alien setting with its friendly people and hopeful environment to life. It was a time when neighbors lived together and enjoyed a sense of community. The Book of Stillmeadow takes readers to a time when life was difficult but no less sweet. Gladys died in 1980 in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Many modern-day readers have admitted to first hearing about the woman that was Gladys Taber from their mothers and grandmothers who looked to her for guidance in running their homes and raising their children. Her works persisted on the literary landscape through the decades because they contained so much practical advice about finding peace and satisfaction in life. In the years that followed her rise to fame, Stillmeadow became a symbol for community and togetherness and hope. She emphasized the satisfaction that could come from pursuing the mundane tasks required to care for a home. Her fans praised her for keeping their souls nourished in difficult times. She did more than most to stifle the cynicism that prevailed in her time. She showed her readers that each new day could bring with it new miracles. It didn’t matter how dark things got, how frightening news of wars and conflicts became Gladys never wavered in her determination to chronicle simple life in simple settings. Gladys saw a reality that most people did not live and her words brought order to a world overwhelmed with chaos. She highlighted the simple beauty of life, often hidden beneath an ugly and corrupt façade. Gladys Taber’s writing style created a wise, optimistic and honest voice that provided a light in a broken world.
Gladys drew readers in because her books felt like journals. Many of her works were straightforward musings about the simple life and seemingly ordinary activities like cooking and rearing livestock. And people flocked to publications like ‘Ladies Home Journal’ and Family Circle magazines because they couldn’t get enough of the vivid brush strokes with which she brought Stillmeadow to life. Stillmeadow was just as important a character in her works as any of the protagonists she created. The stories she wrote provided readers a glimpse into the lives and times of the people who lived on her farm in Connecticut. People speak fondly of ‘Diary of Domesticity’, ‘Butternut Wisdom’ and other similarly popular columns.īut it was for the Stillmeadow books that Gladys was best known. Her works traversed some of America’s most tempestuous times. Over the course of her life, Gladys Taber wrote several dozen books. The job required the author to commute part of the time to New York. Though, when the opportunity arose, she did not hesitate to take up a creative writing teaching position at Columbia University. So Gladys settled down in Stillmeadow, committing her life to the task of raising her child and caring for her husband. She would have happily pursued additional certifications but her marriage and entry into motherhood proved too disruptive. Gladys had quite a ways to go on her academic path. The author got her last name from Frank Taber whom she married in 1921, with their union bringing Constance, their daughter into the world. Her resume eventually came to include a Bachelor’s Degree and an M.A, acquired from Wellesley and Lawrence College respectively. Gladys had quite a few memories of her grandfather’s farm because she spent some time there. The family was compelled to follow him to whichever states, towns and villages he was forced to relocate. The author’s father was a mining engineer and his work took him all over the country. Gladys Taber (born Gladys Bagg Taber) was born in 1899 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Gladys died in 1980 at the age of eighty. She was best known for her Stillmeadow works.
Gladys Taber was an American author who wrote books and columns inspired by her life and experiences.
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