Good Old Summertime in the Gilded Age by Tam May

Photo Credit: Terrasse à Sainte-Adresse, Claude Monet, 1866-1867, oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY: Crisco 1492/Wikimedia Common/PD old 80

Much of my historical family saga, the Waxwood Series, takes place during the summer months. Our modern mentality regarding summer is not only about hot weather, swimming pools, and summer camp, but it’s also about fun, leisure, and rest. 

But this wasn’t always the case. In the 19^th century, only the privileged (like my Alderdice family) could afford both the time and the money to go away on vacation. In fact, up until the middle of the 19^th century, taking time off during the summer was only for the affluent, teachers and kids. Working people did not take time off in the summer and certainly not for fun and leisure. There were several reasons for this. First, a tension existed between work and play in America then, as it does to some extent now (though we’re much more appreciative of the fact that taking time off from work when the kids are out of school is necessary to recharge our batteries). Second, doctors and ministers and other authorities were suspicious of vacation time, believing it led people into vice and unhealthy behaviors. And, also, most people just couldn’t afford to take time off and go somewhere for the summer.

What changed? Our awareness that being the constant workhorse was, in fact, unhealthy, more so than the sort of vices vacation destinations could offer, for one. Another thing was a rising middle class in the Gilded Age that could finally afford to take the time off from work during the summer to have a good time. And, too, as with much of American life in the Gilded Age, there was the question of commerce. The travel and hospitality industries (like hotels and restaurants) figured out they could make a lot of money by encouraging Americans to take time off and play.

In my Waxwood series, the affluent Alderdice family and other characters end up in the resort town of Waxwood during the summer months. Resort life was growing in the Gilded Age among the wealthy and upper middle class, as evidenced in Charles Dudley Warner’s book, Their Pilgrimage. These wealthy people used to take summer vacation very seriously, spending months lounging in resorts, meeting new people, and participating in all sorts of summer activities and events. Such is the case with the Alderdices, the Paynes (a niece and aunt who appear in Book 3 of the series), and Harland Stevens ( a father figure to Jake in Book 2, False Fathers, and who makes another appearance in Book 4). 

To find out more about my series, you can go to this page. Book 1, The Specter, is available here. 

Sometimes no father is better than a false father.

In 1898 California, Jake Alderdice comes of age as a shy and contemplative youth who is passionate about art. On vacation in Waxwood, now a fashionable resort town, he meets Harland Stevens, who takes an interest in the young man's artistic ambitions. Stevens seizes upon the fatherless young man to counsel him toward a path to manhood inspired by Teddy Roosevelt and Thoreau. He introduces Jake to The Order of Actaeon, a secret society built upon Roosevelt’s ideals of masculine virility and virtue.

But the path to maturity is a complex thing in the Gilded Age. Will his journey free him from the Alderdice family illusions, half-truths, and lies that have kept him a child? Or will it lead him into the world of Actaeon, where the hunter becomes the hunted?

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Tam May grew up in the United States and earned her B.A. and M.A in English. She worked as an English college instructor and EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher before she became a full-time writer. She started writing when she was 14, and writing became her voice. She writes fiction characters who examine their past in order to move into their future and are influenced by the time in which they live.


Her first book, a collection of contemporary short stories titled Gnarled Bones And Other Stories, was nominated for a 2017 Summer Indie Book Award. She is currently working on a Gilded Age family saga. The first book, The Specter, came out in June of 2019, and the second book, False Fathers, is also now available. Book 3 (The Claustrophobic Heart) and Book 4 (Dandelion Children) will be out in 2020. She is also working on a historical mystery series featuring a turn-of-the-century New Woman sleuth. Both series take place in Northern California.

She lives in Texas but calls San Francisco and the Bay Area “home”. When she’s not writing, she’s reading classic literature and historical fiction, watching classic films, or cooking up awesome vegetarian dishes.


For more information on Tam May and her work, feel free to check out her website at www.tammayauthor.com.