Kensington Round Pond

"As a child England had seemed much nearer than New York or the cowboy west. Partly, he supposed, it was because of the year in Kensington when he was very small : Kensington and the Round Pond and tea in the nursery and 'Here comes a chopper to chop your head'. And being taken out to the shires to visit country friends. That year had given England reality--perhaps that was why it lived in the books. And even as a boy he had wanted to go to Oxford. When in the end he had gone up, it had seemed both right and inevitable."

Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy, Prologue

His Other Grandfather's House

The photo above is of Sheldon Vanauken's grandfather's house without the verandas.

"Then he travelled to his other grandfather's house: the many veranda'd Victorian house set in its ample shady lawns. In it there were marvels, the staircase window with squares of deep-red stained glass, and a bedroom-sized bathroom with an immensely long tin bathtub and a wonderful grating in the floor to bring heat up from the kitchen: whilst having your bath you could hear people chattering in the kitchen and smell the savoury odours of bacon cooking to hurry you. Or maybe his grandfather's deep voice calling you to hurry. He could see his grandfather now, white-bearded and jovial and, apparently, the permanent mayor of his town."

Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy, Prologue

Magic Grove

"Then he thought of his father's boyhood home, the great farm called Magic Grove, a grove planted in a mathematical figure by his grandfather's father who was a mathematician. He remembered sitting on his grandfather's knee and being given a tiny gold dollar."

Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy, Prologue

The photo above is of Magic Grove, but sadly the grove of trees is long gone. Here is a photo of Van's grandfather, Frank B. Van Auken....

And here is Van's great-grandfather, Jacob Van Auken....

The Gothic Lamp

One little thing Sheldon Vanauken mentions in A Severe Mercy is a gothic lamp that stood in his father's study at Glenmerle. This was a treasured possession of Van's that he kept throughout his life in his own home, Vancot, as pictured above.

"Through the study door, sitting under the 'gothic' lamp with its strange leaded shade, would be his father in the deep leather chair with books and pipes all around and casement windows opening towards the wood."

A Severe Mercy, Prologue: Glenmerle Revisited

The Book is in Print!

Sheldon Vanauken: The Man Who Received 'A Severe Mercy' is now in print. How appropriate for Valentine's Day!

You may order a signed copy from my web site here: Will Vaus Ministries

Or you can order from Amazon here: Amazon

The Glenmerle Lily Pond

"At the bottom of the hill a little glade opened on the right, and--yes, there it was, the round lily pond: but dry now with grass bending over its edge. He looked at it, and suddenly it was full of water, and children stood around it in the sunlight. On its surface sailed a tiny frigate--a present from far-away England--with all sails set and flying the white ensign, followed by a beautiful sailing sloop; he waded in to rescue the frigate when it drove into the lilies. He looked again, and the pool was dry. He went on in the moonlight."

Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy, Prologue: Glenmerle Revisited

The Stream at Glenmerle

"Past the meadows the drive curved steeply down into big trees where the blackbirds lived, and the gravel became dappled with light and shadow. Now, as he descended, he could hear a ripple of water on the left where the stream flowed, and he could see gleams of silver where the moonlight fell upon it. In the shadows fireflies danced."

Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy, Prologue: Glenmerle Revisited