“These Are My Flowers: Raising a Family on the Big Sur Coast --- Letters of Nancy Hopkins”
“These Are My Flowers” is based on letters Nancy wrote to her parents in Berkeley after she married Sam Hopkins and moved into their new home on Partington Ridge in 1948. As such, it offers a “slice of life” view of living in Big Sur in the 1950s, one woman’s view of her world and her time. Henry Miller and his wife Lepska, the children, Valentine and Tony, and later Henry's fourth wife Eve, were close neigbors of whom Nancy writes.

Following is an excerpt from the book:

Here Nancy Hopkins is talking about her neigbor Henry Miller:
"And also, very Henry-like, he describes his horror when someone...some progressive school teacher friend of his...approached him to purchase for Val* a book on sex-instruction for six-and-seven-year-olds and this book had "all the scientific terms for EVERYTHING... no euphemisms...just SCIENTIFIC WORDS! I WAS APPALLED!! Teaching those words to children!!! The rest of us had to chuckle gently, remembering that after all Henry has written books any paragraph of which would be enough to curl your hair, and yet he cannot bear the thought that his daughter should even be able to call the parts of the body by their correct names!"
* Henry's daughter Valentine.

Photo on the right by Sam Hopkins 1957

Proceeds from the sale of the books will benefit the Henry Miller Memorial Library, which Nancy helped establish in 1981.

Buy the book! Please include a note if you like a signed copy. Books will ship asap after Nov. 11. Thank you! (Thanks to a very generous arrangement w/ the publisher/editor we are able to sell this for only $ 24.95. The book is very well put together, high quality paper, photos etc.)

Domestic customers here:

International address (outside continental US) please add $ 14.00 shipping: