Simple Gifts: Lessons in Living from a Shaker Village
by June Sprigg
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Description
In Simple Gifts, June Sprigg tells the story of one of America's last Shaker communities--Canterbury Shaker Village, in Canterbury, New Hampshire--during its twilight years, and of its seven remarkable "survivor" women, who were among the last representatives of our longest-lived and best-known communal utopian society. As a college student Sprigg spent a summer among them, and here she gracefully interweaves the narrative of their lives with the broader history of Shakers in America as she show more shows us how her experiences there affected her own life and opened the door to her creativity. Gleaning information from old records and journals that she pored over that summer and later, Sprigg brings to life the generations of Canterbury Shakers from the eighteenth century to the present--their customs, their architecture, their spirituality. She also explores the social and cultural forces and the internal imperatives and tensions that caused membership to decrease, all of which, by 1972, brought the community to crisis. Chronicling the daily life of the village as she found it, Sprigg uncovers the affirming energies of the Shakers--the prominence of mutual love and respect, the devoted tradition of mothering surrogate children, and, above all, the surviving women's spirited eccentricities. She reveals the Shakers as individuals--their personal histories, their wildly different beginnings, what they gave up to join the Shaker community, and, more important, what they gained. Through her lively text and drawings and her intimate connection with the community, Sprigg brings us close to its people with a book that both enlightens and inspires. From the Hardcover edition. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
What did you do for your summer vacation? In 1972 June Sprigg decided to work as a volunteer tour guide and one of the last Shaker homesteads in the country and it changed her life. she was a 19 year old college student and as a kid had visited the homestead and was thrilled to get a job working there. She lived for three months with half a dozen women, the youngest of whom was in her mid-70s. These were among the last of that sect. Each gave her something different to take away with her and she was touched so much by them that for a short while she even considered joining, but knew her life as taking her in other directions. As homesick as she was after she arrived, she was almost loathe to leave when the summer came to and end.
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Coming of Age
33 works; 1 member
Author Information
15 Works 765 Members
Common Knowledge
- Important places
- New Hampshire, USA; Canterbury, New Hampshire, USA
- Dedication
- In loving memory of
Sister Alice Howland
Sister Ethel Hudson
Eldress Bertha Lindsay
Sister Lillian Phelps
Eldress Gertrude Soule
Sister Miram Wall
Sister Mildred Wells
Eric Ashworth
Siste... (show all)r Mildred Barker
Harold and Mary Brinig
Marjorie Emery
Albert and Mary Karabinus
Bert and Mary Karcher
Margaret Nielsen
Sister Ethel Peacock
Gus Schwerdtfeger
Mildred Shuttleworth
Jennie Starkweather - First words
- Well, no, not really.
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Biography & Memoir, General Nonfiction, History
- DDC/MDS
- 289.8 — Religion Christian denominations Other denominations and sects Shaker
- LCC
- BX9768 .C3 .S67 — Philosophy, Psychology and Religion Christian Denominations Christian Denominations Protestantism Other Protestant denominations Shakers. United Society of Believers. Millennial Church
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 119
- Popularity
- 272,892
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.83)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
