<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><p>In 1984, the landscape historian Mac Griswold was rowing along a Long Island creek when she came upon Sylvester Manor, a stately mansion guarded by hulking boxwoods. When Griswold went inside, she encountered a house full of revelations, including a letter from Thomas Jefferson and--most remarkable and disturbing--what the aged owner, Andrew Fiske, casually called the slave staircase. <p/>This staircase would reveal the extensive but little-known story of Northern slavery, and in 1997 Griswold returned with a team of archaeologists, uncovering a landscape filled with stories. Based on years of research--and voyages that took her as far as West Africa--Griswold has given us both the biography of a place that has witnessed war and reversals in fortune, and the riveting story of the family that has occupied it for three centuries. A fine-grained account and a sweeping drama, <i>The Manor</i> captures American history in all its richness and contradictions.</p><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br><p>"Griswold's deft unpacking of the Sylvester Manor mystery reveals the uncomfortable, complicated history they left behind....[A] precise, beautiful book...Haunting." --<i>The Boston Globe</i> <p/>"Extraordinary...This is an important book, for it is not just about a house. It is about the world and the destruction we have caused in it, all for the sake of making that place called home." --<i>Jamaica Kincaid</i> <p/>"History buffs will love <i>The Manor</i>, and it tells a story that needs to be told....[The house is] a remarkable relic of American history." --<i>The Washington Post</i> <p/>"Griswold skillfully weaves a historical tapestry of considerable complexity." --<i>Women's Wear Daily</i> <p/>"A lively history of early American settlement...Like that Pulitzer Prize-winning work [<i>The Hemingses of Monticello</i>], <i>The Manor</i> is American history tightly compressed." --<i>The Atlantic Wire</i></p><br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br>Mac Griswold is a cultural landscape historian and the author of <i>Washington</i>'<i>s Gardens at Mount Vernon</i> and <i>The Golden Age of American Gardens</i>. She has won a Guggenheim Fellowship and has written for <i>The New York Times</i>, <i>The Wall Street Journal</i>, and <i>Travel + Leisure</i>. She lives in Sag Harbor, New York.