2022 IPPY Awards Gold Winner in West-Pacific (Best Regional Non-Fiction)
“Pam Valois’s lovely account of Jacomena Maybeck and her life in the Berkeley Hills reveals the real and fascinating woman whose artistic and cosmopolitan ideas defined a generation of women living in that iconic city.”
—Inderpal Grewal, Professor Emerita, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Yale University
“Blooming in Winter is the biography of a fascinating woman who managed to live her long life to the fullest. . . . Although Jackie is not famous outside of Northern California, this biography reveals her to be a woman worth knowing. In contemporary American society, which favors youthfulness, Jackie showed that. . . it is never too late to begin something new.”
—Foreword Clarion Reviews
“Through our shared passion for conserving Berkeley’s architectural heritage, I came to treasure Jacomena’s wit and her devotion to the legacy of Bernard Maybeck, the great American Arts and Crafts architect. Jackie held court over house tours that revealed how graceful architecture enriches and shapes our lives.”
—Anthony Bruce, Director, Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association
“Valois’ rich narrative portrays an ageless woman who also epitomizes a particular time and place. Jacomena proves, through her own genius, that to create a house is also to create a home and a life. Blooming in Winter is an appreciation of this remarkable woman.”
—Tina Gillis, author of Where Edges Don’t Hold, Finalist, Maine Literary Award for Maine-themed Non-fiction, 2018
“Beautifully written, filled with family conflict, love and suspense, the story of Jacomena Maybeck is the tale of every woman and her struggles to find her voice and create a life on her own terms.”
—Louise Nayer, author of Burned: A Memoir, an Oprah Great Read
“Navigating widowhood and grappling with the onset of old age, Maybeck embraces her independence and freely explores all artistic inquiries. . . . A reverential celebration of a feisty woman with a zest for growth, art, community, and dynamic living. This careful consideration of an extraordinary life emphasizes creative expression and the strength of womanhood.”
—BookLife Reviews
“Many books deal with Berkeley’s architectural roots and Maybeck’s influence. Blooming in Winter successfully intertwines Berkeley’s architecture and social history, seamlessly integrating architectural design with family combat and a woman’s fight for and right to independence.”
—Leslie M. Freudenheim, author of Building with Nature: Inspiration for the Arts and Crafts Home
“[This] biography focuses on a venerable woman who left her mark on Berkeley, California. Valois’ careful selection of quotes from Maybeck’s contradictory, ‘Rashomon-like’ diaries are deployed to great effect, furthering the vision of a charming woman anyone would love to know. . . . [T]he account feels like a nostalgic conversation about a deeply loved, mutual friend. An engaging and detailed portrait of a 20th-century woman and the communities she tended.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Planted in the soil of the Maybeck family, Blooming in Winter is an absorbing tale and a graceful retelling of a woman’s life. Widowed at age sixty-one, Jacomena Maybeck seeks—and finds—her own identity as an artist and storyteller.”
—Sandra Butler, author of It Never Ends: Mothering Middle-Aged Daughters
“In Blooming in Winter, photographer and writer Pam Valois introduces us to her friend and muse, Jacomena Maybeck, and reveals an insider’s vision of Maybeck life and architecture. Carefully curated and based on letters, diaries, interviews, and extensive research, Valois’s collage is a compelling portrait of a fascinating woman who provides a glimpse into how to balance dark thoughts with small pleasures and live fully at any age.”
—Ruth O. Saxton, author of The Book of Old Ladies, and Professor Emerita of English, co-founder of the Women’s Studies program, and founder of Rhetoric and Composition program at Mills College
“While Blooming in Winter presents the specific story of Jacomena's life in a legendary family, it shares themes that are universal to all women—the challenges of fitting in while maintaining independence in a circle of large personalities, the struggle to find creative outlets and realizing your passion, and gracefully aging while change is all around you. It also paints an intimate portrait of Bernard Maybeck the architect, artist, husband, father and grandfather.”
—Jan Berckefeldt, Executive Director, Maybeck Foundation
“Blooming in Winter portrays my mother, Jacomena Maybeck, as she was in life. With a fine ear for my mother’s wit, a wink at her quirkiness, and a knowledge of her secrets, Pam Valois reveals the secrets of a good old age.”
—Adriana (Cherry) Maybeck Nittler
2021-03-24
A biography focuses on a venerable woman who left her mark on Berkeley, California.
“Where did Jacomena Adriana van Huizen come from, and how did she become Jackie Maybeck?” Valois asks before launching into her story about the life of her close friend and sometime landlord. Born to Dutch immigrants, van Huizen arrived in California as a young child at the tail end of the gold rush, and her parents fell in love with the countryside east of Berkeley. The family became friendly with the Maybecks, introducing van Huizen to her future husband, Wallen, and future father-in-law, Bernard, a visionary architect who designed more than 150 distinctive buildings in the area. The Maybeck clan would rotate between Bernard’s different houses as it weathered cultural shifts, the Depression, and wars—with Jackie Maybeck and her husband eventually creating their own street named for their daughters: “Maybeck Twin Drive.” Valois documents every move, property, and mood of her subject throughout these changes, leading up to the moment that the author herself met Maybeck as a warm, welcoming widow devoted to art and her family’s properties: “My chore is the hill. I feel that I am the last of the Maybecks.” Valois’ careful selection of quotes from Maybeck’s contradictory, “Rashomon-like” diaries are deployed to great effect, furthering the vision of a charming woman anyone would love to know. (Most intriguing are the author’s interpretations of Maybeck’s lengthy story “Journey: Small Adventure” as a thinly disguised autofiction about time spent in Europe after World War II.) Valois is overly concerned with the details of who lived where and when at times, to the detriment of her biography’s main strength: the familial communities centered on Maybeck and her Berkeley homes. But the author’s deep respect for the woman shines through on every page. In the end, the account feels like a nostalgic conversation about a deeply loved, mutual friend.
An engaging and detailed portrait of a 20th-century woman and the communities she tended.
