Vivian Swift

This remarkable book is very difficult to explain. On the back cover, author Vivian Swift calls it an "illustrated chronicle," but that descriptor suggests a story or at least a loose stringing together of related events. Rather than a "chronicle," When Wanderers Cease to Roam is more of a seasonal collage. The book progresses month by month through Swift's life in a small village on the Long Island Sound and is stuffed full of the author's watercolor paintings, drawings, and related show more musings. Swift hand lettered the entire book, including the front page with the publishing information and the ISBN numbers. I haven't come across anything so carefully crafted in a long time.

In January, we are treated to watercolors of snowy country scenes and pen-and-ink drawings of snowmen and winter gulls in various poses. There's also a mini-memoir describing five of Swift's notable past birthdays, including: "Celebrating at the King David Hotel (built in 1931) in Jerusalem (founded in 2000 BCE) where the tomates provencals are unforgettable and I have no idea that my soldier dining companion will become my first husband. I am 30." February is a homage to travel while May focuses on gardens and gardening. Some of the book's most beautiful watercolors are of the night sky in July.

When Wanderers Cease to Roam won't appeal to everyone. It's slightly cutesy in places and contains plenty of cats and tea cups. Although I usually abhor such books, I was utterly charmed by this one. Judging by the glowing reviews this book is receiving, I'm not alone.

This review also appears on my blog Literary License. show less

Some books to do not fall easily into a category and When Wanders Cease to Roam is one of those books. Part memoir, part travel diary, part daily observations of a calendar year in a small town on Long Island Sound, part amusing insights on things past, present and future from the mundane to the poetic, it is a tome filled with a wonderful variety of delightful nuggets.

After traveling around the world from the time she was 19, holding a wide variety of jobs and having a number of show more fascinating…and not so fascinating experiences…Ms. Swift decided when she was about forty to take a pause in her travels. A ten year pause along the coast of Long Island Sound; a pause that in her hands proves to be just as interesting as some of her more exotic adventures. To quote the author, "I bummed around the world for twenty years before I suddenly decided to unpack my duffle bags once for all. On a whim I chose a small village on the Long Island Sound to be my happily-ever- after address. Little did I know that home would be the most extraordinary place I'd ever visit." Well, in her hands and through her eyes it is.

The book is illustrated with about 300 of Ms. Swift's works of art, from her wonderful watercolors, to pen and ink line drawings and illustrations of everything from her cats to her neighbors. There is a page of her painting of eight varieties of snowflakes, another of 19 lost mittens she found over the ten years in her walks in the snow, two pages devoted to lovely colorful drawings of her collection of tea cups, many with a story, that makes my shelf of mugs at home seem so dull.

We travel with her from January, when we learn how to 'winterize' our minds, through March, which is both Tea Time and the time of 14 types of mud…all illustrated…May, the season of Secret Gardens to September, when she proposes The Acre of Earth Theory of Life. "Everyone gets an acre of Earth when they're born... If you ever feel crowded into a corner by your life, you need to take a better look at your acre of Earth. It's bigger than you think." Her 'acre' has extended from Zen Buddhist boyfriends in Paris to rainy days in Dublin and mornings in the Sahara. Along the way, we have brief visits with Thoreau, Dickinson, Willa Cather and Scooter, the ugly kitten. Every step is beautifully illustrated and it those illustrations that make this book so special.

Don't get me wrong; the text of this book is very good. At time it is poetic, at time philosophical and at times just very, very funny… and always entertaining. But the book is really just so attractive to look at and I absolutely love the watercolors. Gosh, I wish I could paint like that…or at all for that matter…lol

I totally recommend this absolutely charming book. show less

illustrated art journal from author's decade spent not traveling, in small Village town on the Connecticut coast of the Long Island Sound; Mindfulness and staying home (by choice, after decades of world travel, and not for quarantine purposes) circa late 1990s-early 2000s.

lovely little vignette artwork (Swift is very skilled in various media: watercolor, ink/watercolor, ink, pencil, embroidery) paired with brief journal entries and collected tidbits/trivia from her time spent in practiced show more mindfulness. I liked the various lists and collections of things, and found this journal to be meditative and soothing as I dawdled over each thoughtfully composed, illustrated and hand-lettered page (before digital publishing software made this so easy). show less

With a sensible East Coast mindset and an unaffected pen, Vivian Swift shares her personal journal on the joys of staying put after years of travel in When Wanderers Cease to Roam: A Traveler's Journal of Staying Put. It’s difficult to pigeonhole this book into a standard description: part artist’s scrapbook - part journal, it’s filled with cats, tea, travel recollections, architecture, fashion, history, anecdotes, advice and fond remembrances of a life well-lived. It tumbles forth in show more a month-by-month format of folksy charm. The watercolors are vivid and whimsical; the handwritten text is completely the author’s own.

One of my favorite sections illustrates the deeper than surface recollections of a woman coming to terms with the end of her traveling desires and, in a larger sense, accepting herself: In 1977, while visiting Paris on Bastille Day, she met a handsome boy. They laughed the night away, kissed a bit, and considered themselves oh-so cosmopolitan. They were certain they’d grow into nothing at all resembling their parents…. I won’t spoil page 27 for you, but you can imagine her, 20 years later, recollecting on that youthful cliché.

When Wanderers Cease to Roam: A Traveler's Journal of Staying Put is a great gift book, especially with the holiday season approaching. Recommended for women of a certain age, wayward travelers seeking a new vision and memoir readers.

Review first published on Many A Quaint & Curious Volume show less