George Nixon Black spent a lifetime hiding in plain sight. In an art-filled townhouse on Boston's Beacon Hill and in the architectural masterpiece Kragsyde, his house at Lobster Cove, he lived in obscurity, harboring a secret of violence and a secret of love.
If Black were mentioned at all in his time, it was almost as rumor. As Boston's largest taxpayer he traveled to the opera in a carriage that was the envy of his peers. Glimpsed on the street, it was usually only with one of his beloved dogs by his side. His collections of antiques and paintings were said to be extraordinary. When his own portrait was painted, just twice, he chose women artists. Each winter he quietly boarded a luxury Europe-bound steamship with a man eighteen years his junior, with who he had lived for years.
In the end it was his house that gave him away. While Black was probably content to slip unnoticed into history, Kragsyde was to have no such fate. Published many times and adored by architects and scholars, the famous house has made it impossible for Black to disappear. In The House at Lobster Cove you will see behind the doors of the house that sheltered and shaped this elusive Boston bachelor and continued to tell his story long after both were gone.
Jane Goodrich is a native New Englander who writes from the coast of Maine in a house she built herself. A lifelong love of history has inspired her work as a designer, builder, printer and storyteller. On any given day she might be found refilling her fountain pen, driving nails, musing on a plot, and often, all three.
"Jane Goodrich has built two fine house in her life--the remarkable resurrection of George Nixon Black's Shingle-style masterpiece and this novel, which is as capacious, assured, and surprising as Kragsyde itself." — Howard Mansfield, author of Dwelling in Possibility
"A remarkable debut novel persuasively melding fact and fiction, The House at Lobster Cove stirs and fascinates, with evocative descriptions of the civil war, Gilded Age architecture and scoiety, and an enduring romance." — Bret Morgan, author of Shingle Style: Houses by the Sea
"The finely drawn characters and the vividly envisioned settings in which they lived encourage the reader to enter into their world and make this first novel a thoroughly accomplished work of fiction." — Gertrude De G. Wilmers, author of Frederic Crowninshield: A Renaissance Man in the Gilded Age
"Exquisitely written, painstakingly researched, and a complete joy to read -- I haven't encountered a novel this beautifully constructed, or this moving, in many years. Goodrich provides a fascinating look at nineteenth- and early-twentieth century New England (especially the Byzantine world of the Boston Brahmin class) through the lens of fully realized, compelling characters -- all of whom are based on historical figures. Despite its focus on American life of over a century ago, the book also covers many themes that feel uncannily contemporary, including the vicissitudes of the economy, debates over religious tolerance, and issues of class. The central love story between the protagonist, Nixon Black, and his partner, Charles Pitman, is unlike any I've ever read before; their ability to create a fulfilling life together was nothing short of miraculous, given the place and time in which they lived. Following the course of their lives, and the unforgettable characters in their circle, you'll feel as though you genuinely know them all. When I'd finished the book, I did something I rarely do... I started it over again." — Tripp Evans, Amazon.com
"This book is so beautifully written it's almost lyrical. Based on real people, it traces the life of George Nixon Black, Jr. from his childhood before the American Civil War to his death in the early 20th century. The characters are well-drawn. An excellent work of historical literary fiction." — Eileen O'Finlan, Goodreads.com
"An impressive example of historical biography fiction -- the kind that kindles your curiosity to know more and sends you off into hours of googling people, places, event, and especially pictures. The life of George Nixon Black, Jr., an incredibly wealthy and thoroughly modest man, began in the 1850s and ended in1928, providing a platform for distant glimpses of the Civil War, World War II and the great fire of Boston, among other major events. However, the focus remain entirely on the personal world of Nixon. The physical book contributes a significant feeling of reverence toward its content. The choices of paper, type face, and cover stock all reflect the quiet elegance of long gone luxuries. The understated perfection of both the writing and the publishing reflect the remarkable taste and talent of Jane Goodrich." — Ann Aldrich, Goodreads.com
"This novel is so beautifully written and tells the life of a marvelous man, George Nixon Black Jr., who has been largely forgotten . It all began with the author's obsession with his summer home Kragsyde, which, alas, was demolished soon after Black's death in 1929. The author writes with such passion and draws you in so completely that every moment of joy, despair, and in between become awfully real. It has inspired me to tour the places that were important to him in Ellsworth, ME, Boston, Nahant, and Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA. An extraordinary man, an extraordinary life, and an extraordinary novel." — Ting, Goodreads.com
"This was lovely. The book itself is beautiful, printed on smooth, thick paper in a lovely font. It is the story of a man and his times more than the house - at Lobster Cove - he built; an imagining, thoroughly researched and told with care and respect. Nixon Black was born in 1842 in Ellsworth, Maine, into a wealthy family; they moved to Boston when he was a teenager. His life spans the Civil War, the Gilded Age, and World War I; he died in 1928, before the stock market crash and the Great Depression. Black lived quietly, careful not to reveal that he was gay. You could say the extravagant, wonderful house he built on a bluff overlooking the sea was the manifestation of his true self. Anyway, I savored this book, both for the moment in time it opened to me and because it's suffused with beauty, joy, and love." — Suzanne Hamilton, Goodreads.com
