The Grand Design by Joy Callaway A Novel of Dorothy Draper and The Greenbrier Resort In West Virginia

399 pages Harper Muse publisher May 17,2022 publication date

About The Book

She has one last chance to prove she chose the right course for her life.

In 1908, young Dorothy Tuckerman chafes under the bland, beige traditions of her socialite circles. Only the aristocracy’s annual summer trips to The Greenbrier resort in West Virginia spark her imagination. In this naturally beautiful place, an unexpected romance with an Italian racecar driver gives Dorothy a taste of the passion and adventure she wants. But her family intervenes, sentencing Dorothy to the life she hopes to escape.

Thirty-eight years later, as World War II draws to a close, Dorothy has done everything a woman in the early twentieth century should not: she has divorced her husband—scandalous—and established America’s first interior design firm—shocking. Now, Dorothy returns to The Greenbrier with the assignment to restore it to something even greater than its original glory. With her beloved company’s future hanging in the balance and brimming with daring, unconventional ideas, Dorothy has one more chance to give her dreams wings or succumb to her what society tells her is her inescapable fate.

Based on the true story of famed designer Dorothy Draper, The Grand Design is a moving tale of one woman’s quest to transform the walls that hold her captive.

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My Thoughts

In 1908, rich young socialite, Dorothy Tuckerman, gets to experience the Greenbrier Resort yearly while vacationing there with her family. Dating an Italian racecar driver just ups her social status and makes her crave the passion and adventures that come with being with a wealthy man of status.
Despite her yearning it is not to be as her family puts a stop to it, not uncommon for a young woman in those days.
Never having forgotten the beauty and charm of the Greenbrier in West Virginia, Dorothy returns there thirty-eight years later as a divorced woman and her eye for beauty and style leads her to become CEO of America’s first interior design firm. She is tasked with restoring the Greenbrier to become more elegant than the original design. Her bold and brilliant prints are ahead of her time and one of a kind. Her unconventional methods of design lead some to give her designing suggestions but she won’t back down. Her whole life was the Greenbrier and she absolutely loved it there.
“Based on the true story of famed designer Dorothy Draper, The Grand Design is a moving tale of one woman’s quest to transform the walls that hold her captive.”

Pub Date 17 May 2022
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

Some current pictures of the Greenbrier Resort

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