Grenell 1881: A Novel

Lynn E. McElfresh

River Skiff Press, 2019 - 301 pages

Sixteen-year-old Marguerite Hartranft, the boldest of three sisters in a well-bred West Philadelphia family, balks when her mother tells her, "You do not need to understand. You need only to listen and obey." Marguerite has a passion for learning and questioning everything. When she thinks her parents plan to send her to a convent, she runs away to Thousand Islands, New York. She spends the summer tent-camping on the north shore of Grenell Island. There she meets like-minded women, learns how to take care of herself and falls deeply in love with island life.Grenell 1881 is the first book in the Thousand Island Series, which gives readers a peek at summer life in the Thousand Islands from 1881 to 1961.

About the author

Lynn E. McElfresh was born into a family of storytellers and married into a family with a story to tell. Her husband's family has summered on Grenell every summer without fail since 1875. Grenell 1881 is the first of a nine book series. The Thousand Islands Series combines three of Lynn's passions: family history, the Thousand Islands, and writing. Lynn has written for a variety of newspapers and magazines since she started writing in the 1880s, including over one hundred articles for the online magazine, ThousandIslandsLife.com. She has also published seven contemporary middle-grade novels. This is her first historical fiction.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Grenell 1881: A Novel
• Author: Lynn E. McElfresh
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: River Skiff Press, 2019
• ISBN: 1950245004, 9781950245000
• Length: 301 pages