“Wit, emotion and undiminished boldness. . . . This is a book which celebrates life and warms the heart.” —Tulsa World A timeless American classic, this beloved family saga of the heartland is “deeply felt . . . dramatic . . . constantly alive” ( Harper’s Magazine) On a farm in western Missouri during the first half of the twentieth century, Matthew and Callie Soames create a life for themselves and raise four headstrong daughters. Jessica will break their hearts. Leonie will fall in love with the wrong man. Mary Jo will escape to New York. And wild child Mathy's fate will be the family's greatest tragedy. Over the decades they will love, deceive, comfort, forgive—and, ultimately, they will come to cherish all the more fiercely the bonds of love that hold the family together. This moving novel brings to life the rhythms and the mood of Midwestern rural life through its endearing characters and their secrets, fears, heartache, and pleasures. Jetta Carleton’s only work of fiction remains an utterly compelling story told with perceptive humor and a deep compassion. “A poignant . . . novel that has captured the heart of America and become one of the best-loved bestsellers of our day . . . A profoundly satisfying book.” - New York Herald Tribune “Once in a great, great while comes a new book that makes you thankful you know how to read. The Moonflower Vine is just such a book…Written with a great feeling for beauty, human emotions and human foibles . . . filled with nostalgia, love, laughter, tears and real people.” - San Francisco News―Call Bulletin “This novel is that rare find—a book you can truly enjoy and recall, long after reading it, with sharp pleasure.” - Rita Mae Brown “This is better than good. This is tremendous.” - St. Louis Post-Dispatch “A deeply felt American family saga...dramatic...constantly alive.” - Harper's Magazine “Truly a beautiful book.” - Winston-Salem Journal “It’s hard to say which is more surprising: that Jetta Carleton’s The Moonflower Vine is her first novel, that it’s her only published novel—or that it’s essentially been forgotten . . . Among the great pleasures of the novel is watching [its] chaste image unravel; the other is the writing, which captures both the beauty of the natural world and the complexities of human emotion.” - Washington Post “A distinguished achievement” - Chicago Tribune “The flavor of The Moonflower Vine is much the same as that of To Kill a Mockingbird . . . . It has the same quiet feel of nostalgia, a breeze scented with bluegrass and wild roses. . . . A delightful book.” - Denver Post “Beauty and sheer joy.” - Boston Herald “Wit, emotion and undiminished boldness. . . . This is a book which celebrates life and warms the heart.” - Tulsa World “In its gentle unfolding, The Moonflower Vine is as rare and lush as the flower that names it.” - Fort Worth Star-Telegram A timeless American classic rediscovered—an unforgettable saga of a heartland family On a farm in western Missouri during the first half of the twentieth century, Matthew and Callie Soames create a life for themselves and raise four headstrong daughters. Jessica will break their hearts. Leonie will fall in love with the wrong man. Mary Jo will escape to New York. And wild child Mathy's fate will be the family's greatest tragedy. Over the decades they will love, deceive, comfort, forgive—and, ultimately, they will come to cherish all the more fiercely the bonds of love that hold the family together. Jetta Carleton (1913-1999) moved from Holden, Missouri, to New York City to work as a television copywriter for national advertising agencies. Her widely beloved New York Times bestseller The Moonflower Vine was, until now, her only published novel. The Moonflower Vine A Novel By Jetta Carleton HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Copyright © 2009 Jetta Carleton All right reserved. ISBN: 9780061673238 Chapter One My father had a farm on the western side of Missouri, below the river, where the Ozark Plateau levels to join the plains. This is a region cut by creeks, where high pastures rise out of wooded valleys to catch the sunlight and fall away over limestone bluffs. It is a pretty country. It does not demand your admiration, as some regions do, but seems glad for it all the same. It repays you with serenity, corn and persimmons, blackberries, black walnuts, bluegrass and wild roses. A provident land, in its modest way. The farm lay in its heart two hundred acres on a slow brown stream called Little Tebo. The nineteenth century had not yet ended when my parents, Matthew and Callie Soames, first came to the farm. They arrived newlywedded, with a teakettle, a featherbed, and a span of mules. Later they went to live in a small town, where my father taught school. Sometimes they came back to the farm for the summer. After many years they came home to stay. They painted the house and propped up the old gray barn, bought a bull and a butane tank, and