The Bookmaker's Daughter: A Memory Unbound

By Shirley Abbott

This deeply felt memoir is a journey through family history, feminist insight, and southern mythology. In it a daughter reflects on the complicated and volatile love she and her father shared. Shirley Jean Abbott grew up in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in the 1940s and 50s and was the beloved daughter of Alfred Bemont Abbott, affectionately known as “Hat.” Hat wasn’t a bookmaker in the literary sense, even though he allowed Shirley’s mother to believe as much while they were dating. Rather, his craft was gambling, and his business was horse racing.

Despite the corruption, which put food on the table and rabbit coats in the closet, Abbott remembers the kind and attentive father who spent nights reading to her. He alone is responsible for opening the door to a world of language and literature for her. And she ran with it. Against her father’s wishes, after graduation she headed for New York City. In the end, the girl he had nurtured into an independent and intelligent young woman had outgrown the small town where she grew up. The Bookmaker’s Daughter was originally published by Ticknor and Fields in 1992 and was a Book of the Month Club selection.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
• Release date: May 1, 2006
• ISBN: 9781610750776

Shirley Abbott

Shirley Abbott is the author of three memoirs: The Bookmaker's Daughter: A Memory Unbound, which was reviewed on the cover of the New York Times Book Review and was a New York Times Notable Book; Love’s Apprentice: The Romantic Education of a Modern Woman; and Womenfolks: Growing Up Down South. She has taught writing at Smith College and has lectured on memoir writing at many other colleges and universities. She has written numerous magazine articles, as well as books about the Smithsonian Museum and the historic houses of Charleston. The Future of Love is her first novel.

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Reviews for The Bookmaker's Daughter

[mahallett · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

very interesting story of girl who is so close to father but as he loses his identity and she is getting hers, they lose their closeness forever. a complicated story i'm sure for her.