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Travels With
Charley—and George
John Steinbeck
stayed in Deer Isle in 1960. Deer Isle was the starting point for
his around-America book, “Travels with Charley.” The stories about
that visit won’t go away.
“Sometimes it’s
years between times people mention it,” said Brenda Gilchrist, niece
of the couple who hosted Steinbeck for a few days in 1960. “But then
the book surges again and I get asked about it.”
Then 58, Steinbeck
had been urged by Elizabeth Otis, his longtime literary agent, to
start his trip in Deer Isle, of all places. Here’s the local version
of how one of
America’s
most famous authors came to stay awhile, along with his pet poodle,
Charley:
“I wasn’t here at
the time. I was a young girl,” Gilchrist says. “So what I can tell
you is the family story about it.
“It was my aunt
(Eleanor Brace) who owned the house at that time. Our family had
built this house in 1902—they were old summer people.
“They had this
longtime guest named Elizabeth Otis. She was a well-known literary
agent, and she had also worked with Eleanor’s brother, Gerald Warner
Brace. He wrote a lot of books about
Maine,
and some novels.
“Elizabeth Otis
came here every summer for 30 years. She was of huge importance in
Steinbeck’s life: She supported him when he was really broke and
before he became a success. When he told her he was doing this trip
around America, she told him she would have nothing to do with him
ever again if he didn’t start his trip in Deer Isle.
“So he had to come
here, and he did. But because my aunt was a shy, reclusive woman,
Elizabeth didn’t tell her he was coming until the night before he
was due. Otherwise, she would have tried to back out.
“So he arrived with
his truck and his dog. He actually slept in the truck, although they
had meals together.
“My aunt had a cat
called George, and George didn’t like any of this. He took off for
the woods.
“There are some
nice accounts in ‘Travels with Charley’ of his stay here. Just brief
ones, but quite charming. He describes George the cat, and this is
what I do remember myself: After the book was published, people
would come to this house just to see George (who was female). I used
to greet these people who drove down the driveway, looking for
George.
“George lived to
quite a good age. She is memorialized here in a hooked rug made by
my aunt.”
Gilchrist still
lives in the house where Steinbeck stayed, on Dunham’s Point Road in
Sunset. It was designed by Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, nephew of
the poet and a well-known architect who did much work on
Mount Desert Island. |
