photo from carolyneroehm.com
Funny how a small thing can trigger a whole literary exploration. I’ve always loved lilacs but never knew they would lead to Lilac Girls being published.
In the late nineties the article below in Victoria Magazine led me to Caroline Ferriday’s house in Bethlehem, Ct.
I lived in Connecticut at the time and took the 2 and a half hour trip up to Litchfield County in Connecticut to see Caroline’s house, known as The Bellamy-Ferriday House and Garden, for myself.
It was spring and impossible not to be inspired by the lovely garden Caroline and her mother planted. It boasts antique roses, some which can trace their lineage to the 1500s, and specimen plants from around the world. But it was the fragrant lilac allele that I couldn’t forget, those delicate yet hardy plants that have to suffer through the coldest winter in order to bloom.
Women of privilege, Caroline and her mother Eliza Mitchell Ferriday not only worked tirelessly for the needy, they both worked in their garden tending their lilacs and roses. After Caroline’s father died, just two years after they bought the house, they found great solace there.
Caroline in her garden
After visiting the garden I toured Caroline’s house, which they called The Hay. It is a lovely federal style home, built in 1754 by Reverend Joseph Bellamy, Congregationalist pastor and renowned leader of The Great Awakening. When Caroline died in 1990 she bequeathed her beloved home to The Connecticut Landmarks. They have kept the house just as Caroline left it, with many of the original furnishings in place, such as the crewelwork living room curtains, which Eliza Ferriday sewed.
I was the only visitor that day and the docent was kind enough to answer all my questions. At the end of the tour we stopped outside Caroline’s bedroom, on the landing where Caroline kept her desk. It was left just as she’d used it, with her typewriter and other personal items arranged there, including the photo below.
This picture of the “Rabbits,” Polish women who were experimented on at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp sent me on a ten year exploration, to uncover the full story. I thought if I was interested in these women and their connection to Caroline then readers would be as well. It took almost ten years, but in the loveliest, most surreal twist of fate Ballantine Books agreed and my novel Lilac Girls will be published spring of 2016.
Funny how a flower can bring about such a project. So glad I took the trip up to Bethlehem that day. Can’t wait to share the story with everyone soon.
Learn more about the Bellamy-Ferriday House here: http://www.ctlandmarks.org/content/bellamy-ferriday-house-garden
Enthralling and simultaneously repulsive story. I hung on with my eyes to this disquieting tale of characters whose hats were both villianeous and heroic. Too complex a tale not to explore with pre cision instruments , which she handles deftly.
I just finished reading Lilac Girls for my book club. I am so fascinated by it that I am stalking the Internet to find out more and I came to this Pinterest site! I found this story a wonderful mix of fact and fiction. The fact that there was a real Caroline and the characters from the camp were from the real rabbits is so intriguing for me. Thank you Martha Kelly for your story, your excellent writing and for bringing this story once again into the public awareness
You are so welcome, Nina!Very happy you liked it!
Your book introduced a wonderful woman to me- a grande femme…. in the best
sense of the words….. interesting, beautiful, artistic, talented, kind, and with a moral compass. A remarkable woman, in deed. Thank you for the work you did in illuminating her life.
Best wishes.