Hanover Browsing
THE EDITOR suggested to me that this month would be a good time for a check list of good books. Before making this, however, there is one book which I want to review briefly, which I believe you will all enjoy. It is:
New England Year: A Journal of Vermont Farm Life, by Muriel Follett. Stephen Daye Press, 1939, 12.50.
With a disarming kind of prose, simple and honest, Mrs. Follett has told the story of one year of life on a Vermont farm located in Townshend, not far from Brattleboro.
Many of us have for years driven through Vermont and New Hampshire, admiring the scenery, and watching the farmers at work in their fields. Many of us, I'm sure, have dreamed of ending our days on a farm, fishing a little, shooting during the season, boiling a little sugar, and maybe doing a spot of haying: that is with a lot of hired help. But here is the genuine thing: the life of a farmer, his . wife, and children, on a farm in order to make a living, and also, not incidentally, to remain independent of doles, government subsidies, and so on. Rob Follett is such a farmer, a native son of Vermont, and blessed with a wife with courage and imagination.
Awareness Of Vermont Beauty
Mrs. Follett has an eye for beauty, as well as a sensitiveness to the rhythm of the seasons, inexorable in Vermont, and further—a neighborly interest in her friends who live near her. She is aware of the blazing foliage of autumn, and of the ice locked brooks of winter. She knows all about "sugaring," haying, milking, and also the more difficult art of raising children. She dreams of writing a novel, but doesn't allow her dreams to interfere with her job. If Mrs. Follett is typical of the Vermont farmer's wife, Vermont is indeed a most fortunate state, but if, as I must suspect, she isn't quite typical but rather extraordinary, at least she has written a fine, representative account of the life for one year (1938) of what living in Vermont may mean, and probably does mean to thousands of Vermonters. You will like this book. It is one more reason to be proud, during these days, of your American citizenship.
I have read the following books and recommend them with little or no reservation:
CHECK LIST
Louis Untermeyer: From Another World, Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1939. H. L. Mencken: Happy Days, Knopf, 1940. Julian Huxley, etc.,: Science in the Changing World, The Century Company, 1933. Joseph Hone: The Moores of Moore Hall, Jonathan Cape, London, 1939. Lola Fuller: The Loon Feather, Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1940. Howard Clewes: Sailor Comes Home, W. W. Norton & Co., 1939. Emilio Lussu: Sardinian Brigade, Knopf, 1939. Antoine de Saint Exupery: Wind, Sandand Stars, Reynal & Hitchcock, 1939. Lin Yutang: The Importance of Living, The John Day Company, 1937. David Rame: Wine of Good Hope, The Macmillan Company, 1939. Fraser Darling: Wild Country, Cambridge: At the University Press, 1938. A. E. Coppard: You Never Know, DoYou? Methuen 8c Co., London, 1939. Tom Wintringham: English Captain, Faber and Faber, London, 1939. Corporal Ashihei Hino: Wheat and Soldiers, Farrar & Rinehart, 1939. R. H. Mottram: Autobiography With aDifference, Appleton-Century Company, 1939. Audrey Harris, Eastern Vistas, Collins, London, 1939. Storm Jameson: Civil Journey, Cassell, London, 1939. William Wood: A Sussex Farmer, Jonathan Cape, 1939. Lady Eleanor Smith: Life's A Circus, Doubleday, Doran, 1940. Enid Bagnold: A Diary Without Dates, William Morrow fe Cos., 1935. G. Bernard Shaw: Geneva: a fancied pageof history in three acts, Constable, London. 1939. Malcolm Elwin: Old Gods Falling, Macmillan, 1939. Cyril Connolly: Enemies of Promise, Little, Brown 8c Cos., 1939. Oliver St. John Gogarty: Tumbling in theHay, Constable, 1939. T. E. Lawrence: Oriental Assembly, Williams 8: Norgate Ltd., 1939. Siegfried Sassoon: The Old Century, Viking Press, 1939. Edward Marsh: A Number of People: ABook of Reminiscences, Heinemann, London, 1939. John Steinbeck: The Long Valley: Viking, 1938.
Roy Alexander: The Cruise of the Raider"Wolf," Yale Press, 1939. The Reverend James Woodforde: TheDiary of a Country Parson, Volume 1758-1781, Oxford University press' 1924. The Reverend James Woodforde: TheDiary of a Country Parson, Volume two 1782-1787, Oxford University press' 1926. W.P.A. American Guide Series. At the time I wrote this the following were available: the New England States, California, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, lowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee, and South Dakota which is out of print). There are also available books about New York Citv, Washington, and so on. Julian Dana: Sacramento, Farrar & Rinehart, 1939. Carl Carmer: The Hudson, Farrar & Rinehart, 1939. John Brunton: John Brunton's Book, Cambridge University Press, 1939. John Gunther: Inside Asia, Harpers, 1939. Jules Romains: Verdun, Knopf, 1939. Bruce Lancaster: Bride of a ThousandCedars, Stokes, 1939. John Jennings: Next To Valour, The Macmillan Company, 1939. Ethel Vance: Escape, Little, Brown, & Cos., 1939. Major Robert Henriques: No Arms, NoArmour, Farrar, 1939. R. P. T. Coffin: Captain Abbey and Captain John: Macmillan, 1939. Peter Scott: Wild Chorus, Country Life, London, 1939. Alfred F. Loomis: Ranging the MaineCoast, William Morrow, 1939. A. A. Milne: Autobiography, Dutton, J 939- Pierre van Paasen: Days of Our Years: Hillman-Curl, 1939. Douglas Reed: Insanity Fair, Cape, 1938. Douglas Reed: Disgrace Abounding, Cape, '939- Robert Nathan: Portrait of Jennie, Knopf, 1940. Adolph Hitler: Mein Kampf, Reynal & Hitchcock, 1939. Peter Quennell: Caroline of England, Viking, 1940. Ivan T. Sanderson: Caribbean Treasure, Viking, 1939. Elizabeth Page: The Tree of Liberty, Farrar & Rinehart, 1939. Paul Russell Cutright: Great NaturalistsExplore South America, The Macmillan Company, 1940. Vera Brittain: Testament of Friendship: The Macmillan Company, 1940. Lord David Cecil: The Young Melbourne, Bobbs-Merrill, 1939. Bellamy Partridge: Country Lawyer, Whittlesey House, 1939. Herman Rauschning: The Revolution ofNihilism, Alliance Book Corp., 1939.
H S. Canby: Thoreau, Houghton, Mifflin, 1939.
Will Durant: The Life of Greece, Simon and Schuster, 1939.
Clarence Streit: Union Now, Harpers, 1939.
R. L. Strout: Maud, Macmillan, 1939. Felix Riesenberg: Cape Horn, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1939.
Forbush and Mays: Natural History of theBirds of Eastern and Central North America,Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1939. On the recommendation of President Hopkins I read Simeon Strunsky's The Living Tradition— (Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1939)' a vast reyiew American life which tends to show that there has been less change in American ways, in character, and even in her many problems, than most people, notably the New Dealers, seem to think. "For the moment," Mr. Strunsky writes," we are concerned simply to show the nation of today facing most of the problems that it faced fifty years ago, and many of those that it faced one hundred years ago, and some of those that it faced one hundred and fifty years ago." Mr. Strunsky in 454 thoughtful pages does a pretty good job in doing just this.
It is really a rare accomplishment these days for a poet to achieve the distinction of publication by a reputable publisher, and I hope you will recognize the achievement of a young Dartmouth poet, Kimball Flaccus '33, a friend and student of mine, whose second volume of poems, TheWhite Stranger, (Scribners, 1940), was published in February. This is a more mature volume than Kim's Avalanche ofApril (1934) and the title poem is a play about Quetzalcoatl, inspired by the Orozco frescoes in the Baker Library. It is beautifully imagined and executed, and I hope that you will buy and read it. The second part is composed of shorter poems. Notable are "Letter to Thomas Wolfe" and "The Maiden and the cup of sure escape."
Muriel Follett's Faithful Story of Vermont Country Life, Plus a Big List of Good Books
