I have been intrigued by Jan Karon since I first read “At Home in Mitford.” Her picture is lovely and she struck me as a woman of grace. Reading the book convinced me that she is a woman of faith. These two impressions are both true, but as I learned more about her, I found that she is much more.
She was born Janice Meredith Wilson and was raised on a farm near Lenoir, North Carolina. Writing got in her blood when she was very young, and she wrote her first book when she was only ten years old. She married quite young, still a teenager, and gave birth to a daughter whom she named Candace.
Not too long after that, she took a job in Charlotte working for an advertising agency. She would often come up with ideas for ad campaigns and left them on her boss’s desk. It took a little while of persistence, but after a time, he noticed the talent she possessed and Jan began a very successful career in the advertising industry, gathering awards across the country. She eventually became the creative vice-president for a high-profile company and there won the coveted Stephen Kelly Award.
But all this time, Jan still harbored the dream of becoming an author. She retired from advertisting and purchased a home in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, to pursue her dream. She tried to get a novel off the ground, struggling all the way, but had to admit defeat. It just wasn’t working. But one night, she awoke with the mental image of an Episcopal priest walking down the street. That mental image grew into Father Tim, the main character of “At Home in Mitford” and all the following novels in the “Mitford” series.
Quoted from Jan’s website: “The Father Tim stories became Karon’s first Mitford novel, At Home in Mitford. That book has since been nominated three times (1996, 1997, and 1998) for an ABBY (American Booksellers Book of the Year Award), which honors titles that bookstore owners most enjoy recommending to customers, and the only book ever nominated for three consecutive years. The fourth Mitford novel, A New Song, won both the Christy and Gold Medallion awards for outstanding contemporary fiction in 2000. A Common Life, In This Mountain, and Shepherd’s Abiding have also won Gold Medallion awards. Out to Canaan was the first Mitford novel to hit the New York Times bestseller list; subsequent novels have debuted on the New York Times list, often landing the #1 spot.”
There are currently 25 million Mitford books in print. Jan’s patience paid off and she is now one of the best-known national authors currently writing, with a character who grows more beloved with each novel.
Information for this article was found at Jan’s site.
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At Home in Mitford — Jan Karon