Synopsis
Blending the themes of family, farming, and filmmaking, Harvesting History follows Muriel Murch's journey from Los Angeles to West Marin, where she and her husband, filmmaker Walter Murch, settle on a farm. Here, their life intertwines with a changing community, organic farming, and the Bay Area’s burgeoning independent film scene, including interactions with key figures from the independent film movement, including George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, close friends and collaborators of Walter.
Murch reflects on the cycles of nature, community resilience, and a simpler, sustainable way of life, contrasting it with the fast pace of Hollywood and urban development. The book is a poetic tribute to both the land and the bonds formed through shared values of preservation and creativity.
About the Author
Muriel A. Murch was born and grew up England. In 1965 she married Walter Murch in New York City and they motorcycled to Los Angeles, California, relocating to the Bay Area in 1969 where Murch began working as a nurse-midwife in the rural medical practice in Point Reyes Station serving Marin and Sonoma Counties. Initially part of KPFA-FM’s Drama and Literature Department, Murch brought her radio experience to KWMR, helping develop a platform for local voices and cultural programs. Highlights include interviews with prominent figures like Sir David Attenborough, whom she hosted at both KPFA and West Marin Community Radio, bringing his work on The Private Life of Plants to local audiences. She continues to biweekly produce A Letter From A Broad for KWMR.org and her website murielmurch.com. She lives with her husband in Northern California and London.
Praise from Kirkus Reviews
Murch offers a memoir celebrating family and a unique community in rural Marin County, California.
Muriel (Aggie) and Walter Murch married in 1965, beginning an adventure encompassing family, filmmaking, and farming. After their wedding, they relocated from the East Coast to Los Angeles. Aggie became a nurse at the University of Southern California hospital; after their first child was born, she coached others in the nascent field of natural childbirth as a childbirth educator. Walter had a fellowship at USC’s film school, which he attended with George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. In 1969, “A small band of us, Francis and his wife Ellie, George and his wife Marcia, Walter and I, headed north, making homes where we could.” Outgrowing their houseboat in Sausalito with the imminent birth of a second child, they purchased the Peters Dairy farmhouse (rechristened Blackberry Farm) and four acres in Bolinas in 1972. The addition of two more girls “brought the seemly manageable family of two children to the definitely joyously chaotic farm full of four—plus friends.” As Walter’s career flourished, working as an editor and sound designer on films including The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, Aggie reveled in having space for her children to roam, discovering and reviving the fruit trees and gardens, and caring for horses, sheep and chickens. The children grew up and moved away, occasionally returning briefly, “landing like butterflies, resting, sipping nectar from the home farm, and leaving again.” Although she and Walter now spend more time in her native England, “The farm remains the harbor, and I am anchored within the farm.” Murch has written a multilayered story of life in Bolinas. Her descriptions of heirloom apple trees, roses of unknown provenance, and other plants reveal a very personal connection to the land and people who lived there before. Community changes are explored through the history of local schools, farming techniques, and population shifts. She is self-effacing about her own achievements and generous in sharing credit. This is a touching memoir of a life well lived…and it includes recipes.
Touching, honest, and lyrical, this is a truly immersive read.
About the Author
Muriel A. Murch was born and grew up England. In 1965 she married Walter Murch in New York City and they motorcycled to Los Angeles, California, relocating to The Bay Area in 1969 where Murch began working as a nurse-midwife in the rural medical practice in Point Reyes Station serving Marin and Sonoma Counties. Initially part of KPFA-FM's Drama and Literature Department, Murch brought her radio experience to KWMR, helping develop a platform for local voices and cultural programs. Highlights include interviews with prominent figures like Sir David Attenborough, whom she hosted at both KPFA and West Marin Community Radio, bringing his work on The Private Life of Plants to local audiences. She continues to biweekly produce A Letter From A Broad for KWMR.org and her website murielmurch.com. She lives with her husband in Northern California and London.
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