CENTRAL COAST AUTHORS
Memoir of Deetjen's
Big Sur Inn a real treasure
By ROBERT WALCH
For The Salinas Californian
“Big Sur Inn: The Deetjen Legacy”
by Anita Alan (Gibbs Smith. $29.95)
•
Local connection: A longtime friend of the Deetjen family, Anita Alan taught in Big Sur before
retiring to the Monterey Peninsula. She also was a writer, editor and photographer for the Big
Sur Gazette
• Content: This lavishly illustrated volume traces the historic Big Sur Inn from the time its owner and founder left his native Norway up to the present.
The first chapter takes the reader back to provide a glimpse of Castro Canyon, where the inn is located, as Helmuth and Helen Deetjen found it in the late 1930s. The next chapter investigates the background of the couple while the third section looks at the inn's construction.
Through the sentiments expressed by many visitors in dozens of journals, “Room for Inspiration” conveys a sense of a guest's impression of his or her stay at the inn. Chapter Five delves into the culinary delights the Deetjens served up by reproducing eight of the inn's coveted recipes.
The final sections of the book focus on Helmuth's life after Helen's death, the shared memories of the local residents, guests and employees who were closely connected to inn, and the continual challenge of keeping the inn open since Helmuth's death in 1972.
The poetry of Robinson Jeffers introduces each chapter and the outstanding photos of Kodiak Greenwood are sprinkled throughout the book.
• Author quote: “This book contains but a fraction of the flood of memories, my own and those of others, that the Deetjens and their Inn evoke. These vignettes, photographs, and poems remain a loving, uplifting, invigorating part of my life and the lives of untold guests. Few places in the world blend so well with their natural surroundings and offer the visitor such an inviting place to rest, to discover another lifestyle, and to rediscover their sometimes-ignored inner life.“
• Audience: Filled with wonderful memories and littleknown information about the Big Sur Inn's founders, this is a rich pictorial scrapbook executed with great skill and love. A “steal” at twice the price, how can you not spend $29.95 to add this valuable volume to your home bookshelf?
• Rating: Five gold pens out of five for “The Big Sur Inn.”
