Ansley

Every family must deal with both good and bad, along with the surprises of life. In Ansley, a fictionalized memoir, author Philip Wigent explores these issues among the early generations of his family. Building a narrative based on old letters and documents and oral history, Wigent tells the story of his family’s first three generations, sharing fifty years of family lore.

Precipitated by an unwed pregnancy, two sisters—eighteen-year-old Emmaline and twenty-year-old Sarah Shipman—leave thei...