Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly

Title: Seventeenth Summer
Author: Maureen Daly
Publication: Simon & Schuster, paperback, originally published in 1942
Genre: Young Adult
Setting: Small town, Wisconsin, 20th century

Description: Angie Morrow has just finished her senior year at a girls’ school and is looking forward to college in the fall when she meets and starts dating Jack Duluth, star of the local high school’s basketball team. Her mother would prefer Angie spend the summer reading quality literature, doing housework, and entertaining her younger sister but Angie is thrilled to have a boyfriend and be part of the in-crowd that hangs out at the local drugstore or at the lake. The summer becomes magical to her as she navigates this new relationship, and Angie savors every picnic, every dip in the lake, and every ice cream before the inevitable arrival of fall.

My Impression: Maureen Daly wrote this romantic story of first love when she was just a teenager herself, and it captures a bygone era of waiting for the phone to ring without knowing who would be at the other end, long summer days without air conditioning, and going steady.  It was a huge bestseller and was translated into six languages. The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature (2001) states:

Young Adult Literature, typically regarded as realistic fiction for readers aged twelve through eighteen, is an American contribution to world literature that emerged during the 1940s when adolescence – the period between childhood and early adulthood – came to be regarded as a separate stage of human development.

Many observers cite Maureen Daly’s influential romance, Seventeenth Summer (1942), as the first young adult novel. Though actually published for adults, its enormous popularity with teenage readers inspired countless other romance novels by such authentic young adult authors as Betty Cavanna, Janet Lambert, Rosamund Du Jardin, Anne Emery, James L. Summer, Mary Stolz, and others. Indeed, the 1940s, in retrospect, may be dubbed the “decade of romance.”

Wait a minute, one of these things is not like the others; who on earth is James L. Summer? I certainly know and admire the rest, the first three most of all!

Seventeenth Summer is memorably descriptive and as Angie falls in love she notices everything around her as never before, particularly what is blooming. She feels she can’t tell anyone the depth of her feelings for Jack, both because they wouldn’t approve and she does not have words for it. She is almost in a haze the entire book, whiling away the hot summer days for her evening dates with Jack. I remembered that when Jack kisses Angie for the first time “his lips were as smooth and baby-soft as a new raspberry” and that he has good manners: he is courteous to Angie’s parents and siblings, conscious of her curfew, and (although Angie is oblivious) respects that kissing is all a nice girl like Angie will do. In contrast, Angie’s sister Lorraine starts dating a slick salesman type, who went to college (unlike Jack, who is destined to work at his father’s bakery) but treats Lorraine with contempt and expects more than a kiss (even though I have read this book several times, I was almost afraid Lorraine would get pregnant but luckily he dumps her before that can happen).

When the de Grummond Book Group suggested reading Seventeenth Summer for June, I felt sure it would appeal to the group. I was astonished when we discussed it this week that several people found it dull and couldn’t finish, complained that Angie is implausibly naïve (yes, but that is explained by her strict mother and not knowing any boys), that her family is snobby (true, although Mrs. Morrow would probably argue that they just have standards; on the other hand, she is always polite to Jack – it is Lorraine who is rude) and that the book is very dated. All this is true but I still think it’s an enchanting story and well worth reading. I did notice that Angie doesn’t say much but the book is written in the first person and it is meant to be about her feelings and her eventual recognition that her relationship with Jack is just part of summer and growing up and will not last.

I had always assumed that Daly had writer’s block like Donna Tartt because she did not write another YA novel until 1986, although there was at least one short story anthology I owned at some point. However, she had a distinguished career in journalism and wrote fiction again after her husband died. One of the articles I read mentioned that Daily was descended from Mary Queen of Scots, which was intriguing although a bit implausible.

Do you have a favorite book about summer?

Source: Library.  The cover of this edition, which I read, goes for a very contemporary look, which could surprise readers once they start reading and realize the book was written 80 years ago!