My Father's Garden

My Father's Garden : Poetry of Jeanne Aya Duncan

Jeanne Aya Chapman Duncan, 1917~2015

"This book is dedicated to my mother, without whose inspiration and guidance I would not have fulfilled my life's ambition as an architect, an artist, and an academic scholar. "And, the flute will...Note be mute" -- Lane M. Duncan

Illustrated by Lane M. Duncan

Virtus Publishing, 2026

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeanne Aya Chapman was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in the middle of WWI, three years before the women's suffrage movement. In 1934, due to the devastating effects of the Great Depression on her family, she left home at the age of seventeen to search for work with the federal government in Washington, D.C.

Jeanne was raised by two open minded, intellectually curious parents. Named Jeanne for the French nurse who cared for her mother during WWI and Aya for the Japanese best friend of her mother in college, she followed a life long pursuit of literature and creative writing. Not too surprisingly, her father Elton Chapman, had read the complete works of Shakespeare to her by the age of twelve. No doubt, this respect for great literature became her passion while living in Hampshire, England in the mid fifties.

Jeanne was severely injured in an automobile accident in the mid sixties, destined to live the remainder of her life in chronic pain. With great determination she later moved to Tateyama, Japan, a small fishing village on the southern coast, where she continued her study of Japanese art and literature -and wrote many of the poems in this book.

In the early seventies she developed a warm friendship with Pearl S. Buck, the legendary author often sharing writing critiques and their mutual love for the beauty of the Japanese spirit.

In 1995 she received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the International Library of Poetry for her poem "The Hitchhiker," published in Between Darkness and Light. Hiram Haydn, the famous author, teacher, publisher and literary critic, said that Jeanne was the best student he ever taught.

The first edition of My Father's Garden was published in 1995.