Back Bay [Paperback]

William martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1981

Six turbulent generations of the determined Pratt clan pursue a lost Paul Revere treasure, in a saga that brings readers from the grit and romance of old Boston to the Back Bay of modern day. Reprint. PW. K.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Harvard: mention the name and you'll hear about academic excellence and overweening arrogance, about high-minded ambition and Harvard indifference, about pathways to power and people who think that power should be theirs simply because of where they went to college, about "the fellowship of scholars and educated men and women" and "the typical Harvard snob." And if this was a multiple choice test, I'd check all of the above, because Harvard is a place of great contradictions, which create conflict, which creates drama. That's why I decided to write about the place. And I went there, too. And my son goes there now. When he applied, I gave him this bit of advice, drawn from experience: "Some guys never get over the fact that they didn't get into Harvard. And some guys never get over the fact that they did. I don't want you to be either kind." But back when I was a senior at a Catholic high school in Boston, there was nowhere else that I wanted to go, because, quite simply, Harvard was the best you could ask for. That's what we'd heard, anyway. I arrived at Harvard in the fall of 1968. I had been assigned to Thayer Hall, a century-old dormitory in the Yard. It was my introduction to that world of history, tradition, and excellence. I stepped into my room and was greeted by? a three-foot pile of trash. Of all the rooms in all the dormitories in Harvard Yard, mine was the one that they had forgotten to clean. Or so I thought. That evening, my freshman education in the imperfections of even such an august institution as Harvard had begun. It would culminate on an April morning when I stood on the steps of that freshman dormitory and watched phalanxes of police eject student demonstrators from University Hall. It wasn't a tranquil time to go to college, but it wasn't boring, either. And for someone who knew that he wanted to pursue the business of story telling (in my application essay, I had written that I wanted to be like David Lean, the director of Lawrence of Arabia and other Hollywood epics), there was much to be learned of human drama as I watched disputes between students and administration spiral into outright conflict. But it wasn't all politics. Those of us who were not part of the rebellion developed a healthy cynicism about the rebels, the administration, the whole thing. Then we got on with out lives. When my son started at Harvard, I told him that after four years there, he should feel many emotions, and one of them should be exhaustion? from trying to partake of as much as he could at Harvard. The advice was drawn from experience. I majored in English, a good major for someone with my tastes. I directed plays, including "The Taming of the Shrew." I took courses from the so-called "great men" of the faculty like John Kenneth Galbraith, and from future greats like Stephen Jay Gould. I was tear-gassed, through no fault of my own. I worked as a research assistant for visiting history professors. I got food poisoning from an infamous tray of scalloped potatoes in the freshman union. I interviewed movie stars like James Stewart when they came to the Hasty Pudding, then wrote about them in the Harvard Independent. I tutored local kids in the Harvard Upward Bound program. I worked dorm crew and cleaned hundreds of toilets, including the one in Franklin D. Roosevelt's suite. I wrote an honors thesis in English about John Ford, a movie director. And I benefited from Harvard's generous financial aid policies. In the summers, I worked in the Boston construction industry, and I used to say that I learned more about life on a two-foot plank thirteen stories above Boston than I ever did at Harvard, but I don't think that's true. Harvard was more fun, and the place was good to me?. so good, in fact, that when I got married a year after graduation, my wife and I decided to have our reception in the courtyard of Kirkland House, the undergraduate residence where I'd lived. Then my wife and I headed west, t --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 535 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (February 1, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671415042
• ISBN-13: 978-0671415044
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 3.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #990,973 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In his boyhood, William Martin loved what he later called "big stories on broad canvases." He read the novels of C.S. Forester, Dickens, and western author Will Henry. He sat transfixed by the big movies of the early sixties. So after college he went to Hollywood to try his hand at screenwritng but quickly found that his instincts were better suited to novels. His first, "Back Bay," introduced treasure hunter Peter Fallon in a new kind of adventure that joined the contemporary mystery-thriller to the historical novel. In his nine novels (including four best selling Peter Fallon adventures), Martin has tracked national treasures across the landscape of the American imagination, chronicled the lives of the great and the anonymous in American history, and brought to life legendary American locations, from "Cape Cod" to "Annapolis" to the "City of Dreams." He has also written an award-winning PBS documentary on the life of Washington and a cult-classic horror movie, has contributed book reviews to the Boston Globe, and has taught writing across the country, from the Harvard Extension School to the famous Maui Writers Conference. He lives near Boston with his wife and has three grown children. His work has established him as a "storyteller whose smoothness matches his ambition."(Publisher's Weekly) And he was the recipient of the 2005 New England Book Award, given to "an author whose body of work stands as a significant contribution to the culture of the region."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The test of time, June 7, 2000

By 

Mardy Mancini (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Back Bay (Mass Market Paperback)

I read this gripping saga when it was first published some 20 years ago. Since then, I've recommended it to friends and to newcomers to Boston. Recently, I bought a copy at a local library sale and began to re-read it. I am as caught up in it now as I was all those years ago when I first read it. Martin's "Back Bay" does withstand the test of time. The story is cleverly told by the use of flashback. The reader learns the secret and the mystery of the Pratt family early in the book but must wait for the revelation and solution along with the characters who live in the 20th century. The story is a marvelous blend of fact and fiction and is a must read for anyone who loves Boston, history, and mystery. I would also recommend, as a companion book, Walter Muir Whitehill's topographical history of Boston.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Southie to Brahman, September 8, 1999

By 

Charles Andrews (Fort Worth, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Back Bay (Mass Market Paperback)

William Martin takes his place as the premier historical novelist of our generation. He capably wears the mantle passed down from Michener as story telling historian. He makes us want to learn history. His stories are living entities not a collection of memorized dates. Back Bay carries on the tradition of Cape Cod in both educating and entertaining the reader. This is an art he has refined in Annnapolis and Citizen Washington. While I loved Michener, I often found his introduction a bit laborious. Martin immediately immerses the reader in the story and pulls you along with such compelling force that one rarely knows when to one can take a break. Having live in Boston, I learned more intwo days of reading than in the 3 years of living. From South Boston to the Commons and Beacon Hill, this story brings one of America's first cities alive. The city is the main character.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars gripping...couldn't put it down!, December 31, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Back Bay (Mass Market Paperback)

I am not always much of a reader, but this book caught me from the first pages. It is a MUST for anyone who knows and/or loves the city of Boston and the history that goes along with it. I found myself visualizing the streets and areas of Boston as I read each chapter. My only disappointment was the ending...I could not believe that I was on the last page! I wanted it to end differently for the characters (thus, only 4 stars), but overall I was quite satisfied with the book. I am now going to dig into Cape Cod, but the same author.