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www.beacon.org

Beacon Press books
are published under the auspices of
the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.

© 2013 by Lauren Slater
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America

This book is printed on acid-free paper that meets the uncoated paper ANSI/NISO specifications for permanence as revised in 1992.

Text design by Ruth Maassen

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Slater, Lauren.
   Playing house : notes of a reluctant mother / Lauren Slater.
      pages cm
   eISBN 978-0-8070-0174-5
   ISBN 978-0-8070-0173-8 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Slater, Lauren—Family. 2. Women authors, American—20th century—Biography. 3. Mothers—United States—Biography. I. Title.
   PS3619.L373Z46 2013
   814’.6—dc23
   [B]

2013013073

Parts of some chapters in this book were previously published in significantly different versions in the New York Times; O, The Oprah Magazine; Self; Elle; Iowa Review; Sun; Salon; and in Behind the Bedroom Door, Paula Derrow, ed. (New York: Delacorte Press, 2008); Kiss Tomorrow Hello, Kim Barnes and Claire Davis, eds. (New York: Doubleday, 2006); Searching for Mary Poppins, Susan Davis and Gina Hyams, eds. (New York: Hudson Street Press, 2006); Coach, Andrew Blauner, ed. (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2005); and Maybe Baby, Lori Leibovich, ed. (New York: Harper Collins, 2006).