Helene Anderson

I first came to Woods Hole in 1950 as a brand new bride because my husband, who was a graduate student in Physics, was participating in a summer program sponsored by WHOI. We rented a room in a house on the Woods Hole road and I managed to find work as an assistant to the nature teacher in a pre-school program in the basement of the Woods Hole community hall. After work I surrendered to the incredible luxury of sea and sand at Stony Beach and fell deeply and eternally in love with Woods Hole. We have been coming here every summer since then (64 years!) and it has become the place that holds our hearts to this day.

For 45 years I was a professor of Latin American literature and just recently retired from NYU. I helped build the Latin American graduate curriculum in our department and my research interests ranged from literature and politics in 19th and 20th century Mexico to contemporary women writers in Latin America.

In a world where all is constant transition and mobility there is an incredible sense of continuity in our Woods Hole community as each year brings new generations who explore the beaches, the science school, the music and cultural richness that their parents and grandparents had explored before them. Where else can you find such a sense of continuity these days?

At present we live in the house we built in 1964, on Sumner St., in Woods Hole.