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The Heritage: A Daughter's Memories Of Louis Bromfield

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The 1920s through the 1940s were prime time for literature and the most popular authors of this period included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck and Louis Bromfield.

Louis who?

Although Mr. Bromfields novels never earned the long-term respect that was anointed on authors as Steinbeck or Hemingway, his story is as interesting as that of any author who lived during the twentieth century.

He was one of the group of writers whose skills were honed in France in the roaring 20s (like Hemingway, he served as an ambulance drive in World War 1). He enjoyed critical and considerable financial success as a novelist. He won the Pulitzer at a young age for the novel Early Autumn. Several of his novels were adapted for the big screen. He was an adventurer, world traveler, pal to the rich and famous.

But in the midst of this success, deep down he longed to return to the farmland near where he grew up in Mansfield, Ohio. A farmer at heart, he became one of Americas most influential and revered conservationists after he founded Malabar Farm near Mansfield. After his death, the farm and the "Big House"  a marvelous home if ever there was one  were purchased by the state of Ohio and remain one of the states most popular tourist attractions.

Mr. Bromfield was hardly the stereotype of a farmer. While he loved to get his boots as muddy as any sodbuster, he also maintained the grand social lifestyle that he and his wife Mary had cultivated in France. The "Big House" was constantly filled with thirty or more guests. At any one time, it would host movie stars such as Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall (who were married at the house), New York Socialites, writers as E.B. White and Inez Robb, farmers from overseas, and of course the children and a platoon of slobbering Boxers.

Mr. Bromfield loved to be surrounded by compelling and conversational people almost as much as he enjoyed being surrounded by the lush and bountiful fields of Malabar Farm. Both fed him.

It was a life was well lived, and his loving daughter does a fine job of capturing the mystique, the paradox and, yes, the weaknesses of her larger than life dad.

Louis who?

If you dont know, youll be better for finding out through this eloquent, entertaining and insightful memoir by Mrs. Geld.

Louis Bromfield was the Michael Crichton of his day. A Pulitzer Prize winner, his novels became several successful movies in the `30s and `40s such as Mrs. Parkington and The Rains Came. A globetrotter who ranged from India to France, he returned to America with his family from his home in France on the eve of WWII. He settled in Ohio where he established Malabar Farm, a famous agricultural experiment and the subject of a series of non-fiction books such as Pleasant Valley and Malabar Farm. These informed and inspired many back to the landers and men returning from the war to their rural homes. The Heritage is a lyrical and sensitive memoir by Bromfield's youngest daughter covering her earliest memories in France through the death of her father in the fifties. Not surprisingly, she grew up in a dynamic environment among a number of unusual characters, not the least of which was her father. She has an accurate eye for Louis Bromfield's strengths and foibles and a surprising objectivity. She provides a beautiful and interesting study and proves that the apple falls close to the tree. She is an established author, and, with her husband, has built an agricultural establishment, or experimental farm, in Brazil. Whether this book inspires you to read a Louis Bromfield book or not, you will enjoy a peek into a time and place where New York café society mingled with Hollywood glitter and dirt farming.