Memoirs
Escape Home
Rebuilding Life After the Anschluss, A Family Memoir
by Charles Paterson and Carrie Paterson
Description
The riveting family memoir of a Frank Lloyd Wright apprentice and his resourceful father begins in Nazi-occupied Europe and journeys “home” to American modernism amid the snowy mountains of Colorado. Charles Paterson (1929–2018) was nine years old when the Nazis invaded Vienna in March, 1938. Fleeing Austria for Czechoslovakia just months later, only to witness the invasion of Hitler for a second time in Prague, the author and his sister escaped to Paris to rejoin their refugee father Stefan before being adopted in Australia. Meanwhile, Stefan’s daring three-month-long escape through France by foot and bicycle, told in a detailed letter to his children from Lisbon, is a story unto itself.
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Endorsements
An engrossing saga, profusely illustrated and fully documented, the stuff that makes an intriguing feature film. I heartedly endorse it. – Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer (2018†), Founding Director | The Frank Lloyd Wright Archives
A compelling story of one family’s escape, grace and courage.
– William J. Cabaniss, United States Ambassador to the Czech Republic | 2004-2006
Escape Home is at once an engaging tale of a young refugee from Hitler’s Europe making a new and fascinating life for himself in post-war America as well as a reverential homage to his Viennese father’s survival after living through not one, but two, world wars. This is a memoir of family love and personal adventure as both father and son put the tragedy of their European past behind them to build a fresh and promising future.
– Loren Jenkins, Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent
This jewel should not be called a book but a museum.
– Will Semler, Melbourne, Australia
Reviews
Intimate and scholarly. ... An encyclopedic and epistolary family history, a eulogy for pre-Reich Vienna and an ode to midcentury modernism.
– Kirkus Reviews
An invaluable addition to the literature on the birth of modern Aspen… In a life filled with more optimism and achievement than bitterness, “Escape Home” is the capping effort at finding meaning in a life that has included hardship, heartache, success and home.
– Stewart Oksenhorn, Aspen Times Weekly
A remarkable multi-faceted story of a [Viennese] family who survives through the Holocaust, exile, war-time prison camp, and all the other vagaries of life…. One of the most amazing stories I ever read about escaping from Nazi-occupied France.
– Jill Meyer, five stars, Amazon Vine Top 500 Reviewer
One of the more uplifting accounts of European émigré life that I have read in a long time. At the same time, it is a deeply nostalgic book about the domestic qualities of architecture … about making for oneself a home, even under the most adverse circumstances. What else is architecture about, if not that? … If you consider architecture primarily as an art form, a monetary investment, or some abstract political act, then you will miss the relevance of this book. If, however, you think and feel architecture is about making a home for man—us, humans—on earth, then you will appreciate these tours de force of father and son…. It will touch you to tears right away, regardless of how many accounts of similar fates you believe to have studied and understood…. What a book!
– Book review for the Society of Architectural Historians Volker M. Welter, author of Ernest L. Freud, Architect and Biopolis: Patrick Geddes and the City of Life
Author Biography
Charles Paterson was born Karl Schanzer in Vienna, Austria in 1929. He was a ski pioneer in Aspen, Colorado, where he opened one of the town’s first ski lodges, The Boomerang. A ski instructor for 17 years, Charles simultaneously ran his lodge, was an architectural designer, and avidly served on several volunteer community boards, such as the planning and zoning board with the City of Aspen and the Aspen Music Festival, where he and his wife of nearly 50 years, Fonda Paterson, were lifetime trustees. Paterson died in Aspen, Colorado on August 8, 2018. As one of the last apprentices to train under Frank Lloyd Wright, his archive has become a valuable resource. Following his death, tributes to Charles appeared in The Aspen Times and The Aspen Daily News as well as Architect.
Charles’ coauthor and daughter Carrie Paterson, the publisher of DoppelHouse Press, is also an artist, writer, and editor. She lives in Los Angeles.
Copyright Information
© 2013 Charles Paterson and Carrie Paterson
DoppelHouse Press
DOPPELHOUSE PRESS is a character-driven publisher that focuses on memoir, art, architecture, design, and music, often encompassing forces behind migration and diaspora. Our mission is to bring together a plurality of voices to examine the dynamics between sociopolitical forces and aesthetic forms. The support of human rights and self-determination, untangling historical misperceptions, and providing alternate perspectives has been an equally important goal. Our books hinge around art and bravery, conviction and perseverance, defiance, hope, and the personal stories of people who seek to imagine a better world. DoppelHouse Press books are distributed to the trade by Consortium / Ingram. Contact:Publisher@DoppelHousePress.com | T: +1 424-258-4423 | F: +1 323-349-0985
View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher DoppelHouse Press
- Publication Date March 2017
- Orginal LanguageEnglish
- ISBN/Identifier 9780997003468
- Publication Country or regionUnited States
- FormatPaperback
- Primary Price 18.95 USD
- Pages570
- ReadershipGeneral
- Publish StatusPublished
- Original Language TitleEscape Home: Rebuilding Life After the Anschluss, A Family Memoir
- Original Language AuthorsCharles Paterson and Carrie Paterson
- Copyright Year2017
- Dimensions9x6 inches
- Illustration200 black and white photographs, maps, tables
- Biblio Notes9x6
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