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On a Street Called Easy, in a Cottage Called Joye

When Gregory White Smith and Seven Naifeh stumbled on Joye Cottage, it was love at first sight. They'd just finished their Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Jackson Pollack, and were fed up with apartment life in New York City. What better means of escape could there be than the Xanadu-like pleasure palace built by robber baron William C. Whitney a century before? The asking price was a bit steep, of course, and the leaks, the falling plaster, the non-existent heating and air conditioning, and the nineteenth-century plumbing were a bit daunting. But Smith and Naifeh were hooked — and nothing would stop them.

In writing of their three-year struggle to transform their "handyman special from hell" into a home while at the same time adjusting to the small-town rhythms of Aiken, South Carolina, they bring to life an unforgettable cast of characters — the neighbors, craftsmen, merchants, and friends who helped turn a town into a hometown... and a dream into a reality.

  • Format
  • paperback
  • Pages
  • 336
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9780553066814
  • Genres
  • memoir, humor, biography
  • Release date
  • 1997