Eleanor Bronson Hodge

It is not often that someone can live a wonderfully adventurous life and then be able to write a memoir years later as a nonagenarian -- but that is exactly what Ellie Bronson Hodge has done. She has always been a free spirit, and fortunately had the right companions and resources to turn her life into an exciting adventure. She also has a talent for writing that has captured her experiences in several delightful self-published books. In addition, she has an artistic flair for embellishing her work with pencil sketches that catch the spirit of the moment and give spark to her writing.

It all started in 1937 when, as a Smith College student, she spent her junior year abroad in France. It was then she fell in love with France, she fell in love with travel, and she fell in love with a life of adventure. Her first job after graduation seemed rather ordinary -- as receptionist and proof-reader at Houghton Mifflin in Boston -- but she soon worked her way up to editorial assistant. As she wrote in her memoir Sojourner, "I loved working with words, reading them, assessing them, seeing them become actual books..." But Ellie's life was not only in the world of publishing. With the advent of World War II, the mystique of a life abroad surged back in her veins. During the war she served with the American Red Cross, first in England, then in the south of France. After the war, she remained for several months in Paris, taking art classes and enjoying the city. She was loath to leave her exciting life abroad, but finally, inevitably, it was time for her "to come home and get on with her real life".

Back in the States, Ellie was soon working at McMillan publishers in New York as an editorial assistant, but always with one eye cocked toward Europe. In 1949, she and a girlfriend decided to vacation in France. While she was there a new tenant had moved into the brownstone apartment house back home, a floor below hers. Sam Bronson was an engineer by profession, a true musician by temperament, but also an adventurer like Ellie. They dated, and "by the time spring came," she said, she felt he was ready to propose. "If he didn't, I might have to suggest it myself," she said.

Life with Sam was rather unorthodox, which suited Ellie just fine. When the engineering department at his job was dissolved, "the severance pay was substantial," she said, "so we decided to spend it in an interesting part of the world." By then, they had adopted their son Peter, but even traveling with a two-year-old did not hamper their adventurous spirit. Denmark was their choice, so for a few months in 1955, that was their home. As she had done throughout her life, Ellie kept a journal during her wanderings, savoring with delight new foreign cultures and new friends. These journals became the backbone of her future books.

On their return, changes were made in the Bronsons' lives. Sam switched jobs to become a math teacher; they adopted their newborn daughter, Amy, and settled into a sedate family life in Stamford, Connecticut. But when the children were teenagers, the urge for adventure loomed strong again. They decided to go to Vienna, where Sam would teach in the American International School, the children would be students there, and Ellie would have time to explore "a fabled city and learn a brand new language."

Back home after two years in Austria, life resumed with multiple activities for Ellie and her family. She called them "waiting years," as the children grew up. She earned an MA at Manhattanville College, they became devoted members of a local Congregational church, and they spent summer vacations in Woods Hole where her parents had a cottage.

In 1981, a tragedy occurred in Ellie's life when her mother and her husband Sam both died on the same day -- Sam while playing golf in Florida. They had bought a house in West Falmouth, and that is where Ellie spent the next few years, rebuilding her life with the help of friends and family.

In 1984, she renewed a friendship with a former high school friend Stuart Hodge, whom she had met briefly again in France after the war. She was now a statuesque white-haired woman of 68, but still as adventurous as ever. "Our friendship became a courtship," she writes in Sojourner, and they were married in August of 1985. During their twelve-year marriage, Ellie and Stuart traveled extensively -- Australia, Africa, Brazil, Russia, and all over Europe, including, of course, France -- certainly fulfilling the dreams of true adventurers.

Since becoming a widow once again, Ellie has searched her lifetime journals to record her memoirs, including one titled Still Boy Crazy at Ninety. At 93, Ellie Bronson Hodge is still living life at its fullest. She has met challenges, dared to do the unusual, and enjoyed an adventurous life along the way. She ends her book "A sojourner on a pilgrim journey, that is what I am. I have been fortunate in my journey and I have a grateful heart, mindful of the many joys that have come my way. I've had many People and Places to love!"