The Butterfly Tree
262 pages, 5 1/2 x 8
Paperback
Release Date:30 Oct 1991
ISBN:9780817305604
The Butterfly Tree
By Robert E. Bell; Introduction by Thomas Rountree
SERIES:
Library of Alabama Classics
University of Alabama Press
A love affair with a place—the legendary eastern shore of Mobile Bay
“There are four buses that leave Mobile daily for Moss Bayou. No matter what time the trains get in from New Orleans or Birmingham, you still have to wait around half the day for one of theses buses if you want to get to Moss Bayou. And a good many people do, for Moss Bayou is a lovely, easygoing resort town, located as it where Magnolia River runs into the bay with worlds of giant live oaks and sandy roads that wind forever under the trailing Spanish moss.”
So begins Robert Bell’s novel that is most of all about a love affair with a place—the legendary eastern shore of Mobile Bay. Published in 1959, the story centers on young Peter Abbott who is about to reach his 21st birthday while visiting the bay area. Peter is drawn into a search for the mythical Butterfly Tree, and finds fulfillment and an end to innocence. In his introduction, Thomas Rountree helps set the stage for a step back in time, and a slowing of pace, as we seek the timeless magic of a special locale that happens to be in Alabama, and in each of us.
“There are four buses that leave Mobile daily for Moss Bayou. No matter what time the trains get in from New Orleans or Birmingham, you still have to wait around half the day for one of theses buses if you want to get to Moss Bayou. And a good many people do, for Moss Bayou is a lovely, easygoing resort town, located as it where Magnolia River runs into the bay with worlds of giant live oaks and sandy roads that wind forever under the trailing Spanish moss.”
So begins Robert Bell’s novel that is most of all about a love affair with a place—the legendary eastern shore of Mobile Bay. Published in 1959, the story centers on young Peter Abbott who is about to reach his 21st birthday while visiting the bay area. Peter is drawn into a search for the mythical Butterfly Tree, and finds fulfillment and an end to innocence. In his introduction, Thomas Rountree helps set the stage for a step back in time, and a slowing of pace, as we seek the timeless magic of a special locale that happens to be in Alabama, and in each of us.
Robert E. Bell, a career librarian and author of award winning reference works, lives in Davis, California.
Thomas J. Rountree is Professor of English at the University of South Alabama.
Thomas J. Rountree is Professor of English at the University of South Alabama.
