Faith Baldwin:
(October 1, 1893 – March 18, 1978).
American writer of romance novels and other forms of fiction, often concentrating on women characters juggling career and family. The New York Times wrote that her books had “never a pretense at literary significance” and were popular because they “enabled lonely working people, young and old, to identify with her glamorous and wealthy characters”.
The September storms—the hurricane warnings far away, the sudden gales, the downpour of rain that we have so badly needed here for so long—are exhilarating, and there’s a promise that what September starts, October will carry on, catching the torch flung into her hand.
There is a clarity about September. The sun seems brighter, the sky more blue, the white clouds take on marvelous shapes; the moon is a wonderful apparition, rising gold, cooling to silver; and the stars are so big.
The passage celebrates the distinctive ‘clarity and beauty of September’, when summer begins giving way to autumn:
– Cooler, drier air can make the ‘sunlight, sky, moon, and stars appear sharper and brighter’.
– The moon “rising gold, cooling to silver” describes its apparent color change: near the horizon it often looks golden, becoming silvery as it rises.
– Figuratively, the quotation suggests that ’times of transition can sharpen perception’. September becomes a symbol of maturity, reflection, and heightened awareness of ordinary beauty.
“Apparition” here means a ‘striking or wondrous appearance’, not necessarily a ghost.
✍️ Author and origin:
The quotation is generally attributed to Faith Baldwin (1893–1978), a prolific American novelist and essayist.
It is often linked online to Baldwin’s novel “Evening Star”, published in the mid-1960s—usually dated 1965 or 1966, depending on the edition or catalogue. However, many quotation sites reproduce it without a page number, and the precise first-edition location is not consistently documented.
