Love of a Good Book Makes Life Imitate Art

It’s a simple but pretty little town, with, among other things, a well-stocked bookstore, an antique store, a creative florist and a diner where regulars meet almost every day.

This is a description of Mitford, the fictional North Carolina town in which author Jan Karon’s “The Mitford Years” series takes place, but it just as easily could describe Montrose, a community that despite being on the fringe of bigger than big Los Angeles, seems to have largely resisted the mallification of America.

So it is appropriate that a group of devoted readers of Karon’s four volume (and counting) series gathered recently in the charming 30-year-old Once Upon a Time bookstore for the first of what they hope will be an ongoing gathering called the Mitford Appreciation Society.

When Karon quit her highly lucrative career in advertising (she did work for Honda and British Airways, and her campaign for North Carolina tourism and travel won the prestigious Stephen Kelly Award) to finally pursue her heart’s desire and write, she had no idea that kind of grass-roots movement would swell around her efforts.

The first two Mitford books, “At Home in Mitford” (1994) and “A Light in the Window” (1995) were published by Lion Publishing, known mostly for its Christian market. Lion’s interest was probably because of Father Tim, the protagonist. An Episcopal priest, at 60 he is quietly settling into the rest of his life, tending to his small-town flock. But with the arrival of a large black dog (whose rambunctious behavior always cools when it hears a Bible verse) and a comely female children’s book author who moves in next door, Father Tim’s life begins to change. And continues to change throughout the books, with several volumes to come.

Surprisingly funny, tender but not sickly sweet, occasionally fraught with peril and sorrow, spiritual without being preachy, the Mitford books caught the fancy of booksellers across the country. At the 1996 American Booksellers Convention, “At Home in Mitford” was voted the favorite book to “hand-sell” (recommend to customers).

Viking / Penguin had picked up the series in February 1996, and Penguin republished the first two novels in paperback that year. Viking, now a division of Penguin Putnam Inc., released two further novels in hardcover, “These High Green Hills” (1996) and “Out to Canaan” in May. Advertising was minimal. Dedicated word-of-mouth got the job done. “Out to Canaan” made it to No. 5 on the New York Times bestseller list. “These High Green Hills” came out in paperback this spring. The series has sold 750,000 copies.

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Not only do fans devour the books and pass them along (“I have never had so many customers say these books were a hit with their mothers,” said Once Upon a Time owner Jane Humphrey), bookstores and groups also have organized Mitford parties where participants dress up as favorite characters and Mitford town specialties are served. Orange marmalade cake, a constant presence in the books (and an impetus for an important plot turn in the first) is the most popular item and became a case of life imitating art.

“That cake is completely fictional,” Karon said. “I had never heard of one in my life, but I was constantly asked for the recipe. So a bookseller in Raleigh had a contest and the judges picked their favorite.”

The result is served all at the best Mitford parties, including the gathering in Montrose in June, where the consensus was that the muffin like, dense (but still highly tasty) result was not the cake from the book.

“It is not the cake of my dreams,” said Karon, happy to hear the group is going to try to come up with a more correct recipe. “I think it needs to be much lighter, needs fresh orange rind in it. It needs to be more luscious.”

In between bites, the Mitford Appreciation Society discussed what draws them to the books.

“They are not trivial,” said Sande Simpson, Once Upon a Time employee and Mitford fan. “It shows how leaving your longtime barber can be a traumatic ordeal. It has the small-town ambience, but not the small town I ever knew. My small town was more vicious.”

Mary Alice Dooley, who is from North Carolina, agreed. “I thought they might be over-romanticized, but they are very down to earth.”

“How they resolve their relationships, for Father Tim to come out of his private life and push himself to grow,” was part of what drew Onnolee Sullivan to the Mitford books. “I was going through a bad divorce, and I could come home from the outside world and go somewhere safe.”

As the group noted, the word used over and over again was “safe”--as opposed to “escape.”

“I read a lot of escapist books.” Simpson said. “Spies, mysteries, but that’s not my life. With the Mitford books, you feel like these are people you know.”

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Karon believes this is the reason for her success. “When I open many books, or most leading women’s magazines, or see almost all TV shows, I don’t find myself at all,” Karon said. “I am completely anonymous. My value system is not there. When my reader opens a Mitford book, they say, ‘Oh, there I am. There’s my family, I know these people.’ All of sudden they have a way to connect with a piece of fiction. They had it with James Herriot, God rest his soul. They had it with Miss Read.”

Life happens in Mitford--big events like marriage and death, and small happenings, such as dealing with a difficult employee, fretting about the potential closure of a favorite restaurant or seeing former cat and dog enemies lying down together. For every big problem Father Tim faces--an old friend’s serious illness, a battered child--here are petty annoyances, not to mention fears about asking his neighbor to go steady.

Everyone at the Montrose party wishes Father Tim were a real person. He’s not, but his creator said she is in some ways fulfilling her other childhood dream of being a preacher by writing about him. One attendee related that a male acquaintance was so taken by the books (Karon confirmed that her male readership is growing) that he is now looking into the Episcopal church.

As the gathering wound up with July 24 set for a second meeting, the Mitford Appreciation Society talked wishfully of a group trip to Blowing Rock, N.C., the small town where Karon lives and her inspiration for Mitford.

In the meantime, in addition to three more Mitford novels, Karon will release two children’s books, including “Miss Fannie’s Hat,” inspired by the grandmother who raised her. She is also writing a novella about Father Tim’s wedding, which happened between the second and third books, to the disappointment of readers who had suffered through Tim’s bouts of cold feet.

New fans will probably come on board as word spreads, provided the books are perceived the right way. “When a staff member first called the books to my attention,” recalled Humphrey of her own initial skepticism, “I was worried they would be too saccharine. But they weren’t. They would get right to the edge and back off.”