Elisabeth Merrett

The bedtime stories that Sherman Graff told his oldest daughter as she was growing up in Manhattan left a lasting impression on her. They were wondrous adventures set in a distant place, among a different people. Storied Landscapes tells of the author’s trip to Oregon, years after her father’s death, to find the Indian Reservation where he had lived for a time as a young boy. The stories helped her to locate the mission church and the place where the family had lived, each name of a road or a river providing the needed clues. Side by side with the four Reservation Stories are the author’s own tales of childhood, some forty years later and on the opposite end of the country, revealing the strength of the bonds of family across time and geography.