.....When my grandmother died last month it was left to me, her only granddaughter, to go through her private papers.  They were in a small blue suitcase that smelled like musty dreams and promises.  The suitcase was locked and to unlock it I used a tiny brass key that I remember always being on a silver chain around my grandmother's neck.  When I was old enough to notice and ask her about the key, she replied that it was the key to her heart, and left it at that.....

So begins the story of Lake Forest author, Catherine Caldwell, whose private life is revealed in letters discovered by her granddaughter.  The letters present one woman's interior life played out against a backdrop of Lake Forest history, and set in the context of world events.

From the back cover:  "Kathy Stevenson seamlessly interweaves the story line of the local historic setting with both the larger national developments and the very personal dramas played out with great interest in this saga.  She has accomplished with distinction a complex task, set locally for the first time since Ordinary People in the 1970s and historically here since the 1930s.  The result is a book which all local readers of fiction can't miss, but with a genuine appeal to a broader public, worth reading even if one had never heard of Lake Forest.  The novel will appeal too, to all who love to discover, or hear about the discovery of, hidden literary treasures.  The Lake Poet rings true - for its setting, its story, and its interplay of elements.  It is a good read, recreating a world of enchantment of the mid and later twentieth century here and in America."

      - Dr. Arthur H. Miller, Archivist and Librarian for Special Collections

                                        Lake Forest College