Happy Hollisters author Andrew Svenson (aka Jerry West) was born a city boy, but he also loved the peace and tranquility of the quiet countryside. As a youth, he lived with his parents and his siblings, Arthur and Marjorie, in Newark, New Jersey, just a dozen miles from New York City. But on the weekends, the Svenson family ventured further afield to spend time at their cottage on Lake Lackawanna in northwest New Jersey.
Even as a lad of fourteen, as Andrew awakened on the cottage porch on a hot summer morning, he pondered the tranquil beauty of dawn rising over the lake. His keen observations of the world around him and his thoughtful way with words started very early and would be an important part of his persona for the next fifty years of his life.
Lake Lackawanna, a 110-acre man-made lake in the Musconetcong Watershed was a getaway paradise for Andrew’s family. The memories he made there set the scene for The Happy Hollisters on a River Trip, which Andrew would publish in 1953 under the pen name Jerry West. He, Arthur, and Marjorie spent many happy summer days exploring the woods around their cottage, cooling off with canoe excursions and mid-day dips in the shallow lake. Their mother could often count on a creel of fresh-caught bass and pickerel, thanks to her children’s angling skills.
When Andrew had a family of his own, he wanted his children to experience the same summertime joys that he had. He purchased his own cottage across the lake from his folks in about 1948. His daughter Laura (who was his model for the character Pam Hollister) later wrote an essay about her memories of the familiar journey to the lake, along with the sounds, tastes, and even the smells of time spent at Gram’s House.
Many of the scenes in The Happy Hollisters on a River Trip combined Andrew’s childhood memories with the newer memories—supplemented with plentiful snapshots—of his own children fishing, boating, and swimming in Lake Lackawanna.
In The Happy Hollisters on a River Trip, Pam Hollister proposes a “Big Fish Contest” to be held at Mr. Hollister’s Trading Post Store. Could it have been inspired by the friendly fishing competition documented in the family photos below? Quite possibly! We know from the back of Laura’s photo that the fish she caught was a 6-pounder. Weights aren’t provided for her father’s or brother Andy’s fish, but it looks like it was a close contest!
Several other scenes in the book have ties to Svenson family history, such as the story of John and Russ Hollister putting a frog in a cookie jar belonging to an elderly aunt. (We’ve heard that Aunt Bertha Svenson was NOT amused when Andy Jr. and Eric pulled a similar stunt.)
The real-life influences on Andrew Svenson’s writing give all of his books a believability that appeals to young readers, and that’s especially true with The Happy Hollisters on a River Trip.
