
Together, Alone
A Memoir of Marriage and Place
Susan Wittig Albert(Author)
University of Texas Press
Will be published approx. on 1. September 2009
Book
Paperback/Softback
195 pages
978-0-292-72646-8 (ISBN)
Description
What does it mean to belong to a place, to be truly rooted and grounded in the place you call home? How do you commit to a marriage, to a full partnership with another person, and still maintain your own separate identity? These questions have been central to Susan Wittig Albert's life, and in this beautifully written memoir, she movingly describes how she has experienced place, marriage, and aloneness while creating a home in the Texas Hill Country with her husband and writing partner, Bill Albert.
Together, Alone opens in 1985, as Albert leaves a successful, if rootless, career as a university administrator and begins a new life as a freelance writer, wife, and homesteader on a patch of rural land northwest of Austin. She vividly describes the work of creating a home at Meadow Knoll, a place in which she and Bill raised their own food and animals, while working together and separately on writing projects. Once her sense of home and partnership was firmly established, Albert recalls how she had to find its counterbalance-a place where she could be alone and explore those parts of the self that only emerge in solitude. For her, this place was Lebh Shomea, a silent monastic retreat. In writing about her time at Lebh Shomea, Albert reveals the deep satisfaction she finds in belonging to a community of people who have chosen to be apart and experience silence and solitude.
Together, Alone opens in 1985, as Albert leaves a successful, if rootless, career as a university administrator and begins a new life as a freelance writer, wife, and homesteader on a patch of rural land northwest of Austin. She vividly describes the work of creating a home at Meadow Knoll, a place in which she and Bill raised their own food and animals, while working together and separately on writing projects. Once her sense of home and partnership was firmly established, Albert recalls how she had to find its counterbalance-a place where she could be alone and explore those parts of the self that only emerge in solitude. For her, this place was Lebh Shomea, a silent monastic retreat. In writing about her time at Lebh Shomea, Albert reveals the deep satisfaction she finds in belonging to a community of people who have chosen to be apart and experience silence and solitude.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Austin, TX
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
286 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-292-72646-8 (9780292726468)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Susan Wittig Albert is the author of popular mysteries, including the acclaimed China Bayles series; books for young adults; and books for women on life-writing and work. A graduate of the University of Illinois (Urbana) and the University of California at Berkeley, she is a former university English professor and administrator. In 1997, she founded the Story Circle Network, a nonprofit organization for women who want to write about their lives.
Content
Prologue. Documenting a Life
Chapter One. Meadow Knoll: Getting Here, Alone Together
Chapter Two. Where in the World
Chapter Three. Moving Through, Moving On, Moving In
Chapter Four. Dwelling, Rooting, Learning
Chapter Five. Naming
Chapter Six. All Our Food Is Souls
Chapter Seven. Gaining, Losing
Chapter Eight. Right Livelihood
Chapter Nine. Alone, Together, Apart
Chapter Ten. Lebh Shomea: Getting Here, Alone
Chapter Eleven. Silence
Chapter Twelve. Seeing Through Time
Chapter Thirteen. Spirits of the Place: El Desierto de los Muertos
Chapter Fourteen. Plains Fare
Chapter Fifteen. Storms
Chapter Sixteen. The Kenedy Women
Chapter Seventeen. Belonging to the Community of the Land
Chapter Eighteen. In Place and Free
Notes
Chapter One. Meadow Knoll: Getting Here, Alone Together
Chapter Two. Where in the World
Chapter Three. Moving Through, Moving On, Moving In
Chapter Four. Dwelling, Rooting, Learning
Chapter Five. Naming
Chapter Six. All Our Food Is Souls
Chapter Seven. Gaining, Losing
Chapter Eight. Right Livelihood
Chapter Nine. Alone, Together, Apart
Chapter Ten. Lebh Shomea: Getting Here, Alone
Chapter Eleven. Silence
Chapter Twelve. Seeing Through Time
Chapter Thirteen. Spirits of the Place: El Desierto de los Muertos
Chapter Fourteen. Plains Fare
Chapter Fifteen. Storms
Chapter Sixteen. The Kenedy Women
Chapter Seventeen. Belonging to the Community of the Land
Chapter Eighteen. In Place and Free
Notes