The Pelton Papers

It is 1961 and the artist Agnes Pelton, nearly eighty, is close to death. Surrounded by a few of her cherished paintings and the boxes that contain her memorabilia—her papers—she pours out her story and shares her secrets at last.

Born into a family ruined by the famous Beecher-Tilton scandal, Agnes’s life is complicated by poor health and intense shyness as she grows up with her mother and grandmother in a darkly draped Brooklyn house. Always artistic, Agnes finds her escape at the Pratt Institute, studying with Arthur Wesley Dow, and from there embarks on a lifelong quest to develop her own style of abstract art. Success comes early when she exhibits in the famous Armory Show of 1913, after which she is befriended by Mabel Dodge and mentored by another Manhattan socialite with whom she falls into unrequited love. She suffers defeats and heartbreak, travels to Italy, New Mexico, Hawaii, and California, and finally arrives in the desert town of Cathedral City, near Palm Springs. Here she settles into a sheltered and contemplative life, painting the vivid abstracts that are her joy and her reason for being.

Book club questions for The Pelton Papers by Mari Coates

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

Before reading this book, had you ever heard of Agnes Pelton or seen her art? What did you think of it? Do you think she was ahead of her time?

We learn that as a child Agnes was moved from the “old world” to the “new,” from Europe to America. But in 1888, how was the Europe they left different from the Brooklyn they found?

What role does religion play in this novel? How did it affect Agnes? Her mother? Her grandmother? How do we see it play out over the three generations?

The famous Armory Show of 1913 marked the first time Americans saw such disruptive painters as Picasso, Duchamp, and Matisse. How do you think people reacted? Were you surprised that modern art was brought to America from Europe?

In the novel Agnes is telling her own story. How might this restricted point of view affect what the reader learns about her?

Why do you think she remained in her childhood home until she was well into adulthood?

Agnes is witness to at least four of the major events of the twentieth century: the Armory Show, World War I, the Wall Street crash of 1929, and World War II. How did history impact her efforts and career?

How does this novel address romantic love? Friendship? Familial love?

How does The Pelton Papers present mentorship? Who are the important mentors in her life, and how did each of them help her progress as an artist?

What about you? Are you a painter, or someone who tries or has tried to make art?

The Pelton Papers Book Club Questions PDF

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“...quietly moving...”️—The New York Times Book Review

"Coates’ first novel, a remarkable imagining of modernist artist Agnes Pelton’s life, with layered focus on her personal and professional growth in New York and the Southwest, is an intriguing combination of historical fiction and biography....deeply moving....A meditative and memorable story of one artist's complex journey."—Booklist

"Coates’s stirring debut imagines the life of painter Agnes Pelton....[and] brilliantly captures the creative eye of an unassuming, uniquely talented artist."—Publishers Weekly

“Coates’ thoroughly researched novel…succeeds beautifully at recreating the emotional life of this once-obscure artist, whose legacy has lately become the subject of renewed interest….The author also describes the artist’s unique spiritual journey and the inspiration for her later, abstract works in vivid prose that’s worthy of the artist. An in-depth, highly personal portrait of a remarkable talent.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“In The Pelton Papers the wonderfully gifted Mari Coates recreates in gorgeous detail both Agnes Pelton’s work and the life that led to that work. Reading these mesmerizing pages, I felt that I understood all over again the hardships and the joy of making art. From first to last Pelton is on a journey of the soul and we, her lucky readers, are privileged to accompany her on that journey of darkness and radiance. A truly marvelous debut.”—Margot Livesey, author of Mercury and The Flight of Gemma Hardy

Bronze Winner, Independent Publisher Book Award in Historical Fiction

This Book of the Month and discussion guide are shared and sponsored in partnership with Caitlin Hamilton Marketing.