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Nonpareil Books

First published in 1996 by Metropolitan Books.

Novelist Robert Olmstead journeys back to his youth on his grandfather’s New Hampshire dairy farm to confront the ghosts that continue to afflict him in this coming-of-age memoir. 

Robert Olmstead has peopled his fiction with the rough-hewn farmers, loggers, and hired hands of rural New England mountain towns where getting drunk, getting into fights, and getting thrown out of bars are the normal rites of passage. In Stay Here with Me, Olmstead lays bare the acute pain of his father’s alcoholism and the decline of his grandfather, the family patriarch. With delicate sensuality, he also traces the flowering of his first love for a woman who “walks like light would walk if it could.” 

Authentic, intimate, and intense, Stay Here with Me is about growing up and leaving home and about the acts of rebellion that free the body even as they bind the soul to a place forever. 

This Nonpareil edition includes a new introduction by novelist and essayist, Brock Clarke.

Olmstead R: Stay Here with Me

Stay Here with Me

A Memoir

A journey through both family history and the fascinating and quintessentially American history of New England's Merrimack Valley, its farmers, and the immigrant workers caught up in the industrial textile age. &gt; In the Merrimack Valley brings together for the first time in one volume Brox's timeless trilogy: Here and Nowhere Else; Five Thousand Days Like This One (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award); and Clearing Land (named a Best Book of the Year by the Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution). In considering the place of the family farm today, Brox traces the transformation of the idea of wilderness--and its intricate connection to cultivation--which changed as our ties to the land loosened. Exploring these strands, Brox arrives at something beyond a biography of a farm: a vivid depiction of the half-life it carries in our collective imagination. This Nonpareil edition includes a new foreword by Suzanne Berne.

A journey through both family history and the fascinating and quintessentially American history of New England’s Merrimack Valley, its farmers, and the immigrant workers caught up in the industrial textile age. 
After years of living away, Jane Brox made the decision to return to the family farm of her birth, where her aging father still tended the crops. Brox twines two narratives, personal and historic, as she captures the cadences of farm life and those who sustain it, at a time when the viability of both are waning. Amid the turmoil after her father’s death, Brox begins a search for her family’s story. As Brox explores, she also reflects on the place of the family farm as it evolved from the Pilgrims’ brutal progress at Plymouth to the modern world, where much of our food is produced by industrial agriculture while the family farm is both marginalized and romanticized. 

In the Merrimack Valley brings together for the first time in one volume Brox’s timeless trilogy: Here and Nowhere Else (winner of the L.L. Winship/PEN/New England Award); Five Thousand Days Like This One (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award); and Clearing Land (named a Best Book of the Year by the Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution). 

In considering the place of the family farm today, Brox traces the transformation of the idea of wilderness—and its intricate connection to cultivation—which changed as our ties to the land loosened. Exploring these strands, Brox arrives at something beyond a biography of a farm: a vivid depiction of the half-life it carries in our collective imagination. 
This Nonpareil edition includes a new introduction by Suzanne Berne, and new afterword by the author.

A Farm Trilogy

In the Merrimack Valley

"Attorney Adam Dwyer has six months to live. Carla Dwyer has to try and relax. Lieutenant Tom Cocoran has twenty years on the force. Baby and Skippy have a couple of hours to kill. Sometimes, Providence is just murder as a series of events hilarious as they are tragic upset the equilibrium of life in a small, strange city. Between Boston and New York lies Providence, Rhode Island. Long considered one of the most corrupt cities in the country, it was often difficult to discern who was more corrupt, the mafia bosses or the suits at city hall. Providence is a fast-paced black comedy of parallel lives in the small, East Coast port city. Adam Dwyer is a criminal lawyer dying of leukemia. He and his wife Clara receive another blow when their home is robbed by two young thugs, Skippy and Baby. Tom Corcoran, the police officer assigned to the case, becomes involved with Skippy's waitress girlfriend, Lisa. Long out of print, this New York Times bestselling novel is a raucous gallery of grotesques, a litany of sex, violence, crime, and corruption cast against a precisely drawn portrait of Providence, from the streets of Federal Hill (home of the city's mafiosi) to the fashionable upper East Side (rife with homes ripe for robbing). This Nonpareil edition includes a new afterword by acclaimed television and film writer Ian Maxton-Graham"--

Attorney Adam Dwyer has six months to live. Carla Dwyer has to try and relax. Lieutenant Tom Cocoran has twenty years on the force. Baby and Skippy have a couple of hours to kill. All five of these people will never be the same after a series of violent events, hilarious as they are tragic, upset the equilibrium of life in a small, strange city. 
Between Boston and New York City lies Providence, Rhode Island. Long considered one of the most corrupt cities in the country, it was often difficult to discern who was more corrupt, the mafia bosses or the suits at city hall. But as the story begins it was definitely a gangland figure (known as “The Moron”) whose slashed, bullet-ridden body Lieutenant Cocoran fished from the Providence River. 

Providence is a fast-paced black comedy of parallel lives in the small, East Coast port city. Adam Dwyer is a criminal lawyer dying of leukemia. He and his wife Clara receive another blow when their home is robbed by two young thugs, Skippy and Baby. Tom Corcoran, the police officer assigned to the case, becomes involved with Skippy’s waitress girlfriend, Lisa. 

Long out of print, this New York Times bestselling novel is a raucous gallery of grotesques, a litany of sex, violence, crime, and corruption cast against a precisely drawn portrait of Providence, from the streets of Federal Hill (home of the city's mafiosi) to the fashionable upper East Side (rife with homes ripe for robbing). 

This Nonpareil edition includes a new afterword by acclaimed television and film writer Ian Maxtone-Graham.

Providence

"Lavender, basil, hyssop, balm, sage, rue - the thinking gardener's guide to herbs. Writer/naturalist Henry Beston, a founding father of the environmental movement, believed that a strong connection to nature is essential. "It is only when we are aware of the earth and of the earth as poetry that we truly live," Beston says in his now-classic Herbs and the Earth. In this book, Beston shares one of those connections as seen through the oldest group of plants known to gardeners. "A garden of herbs," he writes, "is a garden of things loved for themselves in their wholeness and integrity. It is not a garden of flowers, but a garden of plants which are sometimes very lovely flowers and are always more than flowers." Whether you are already a committed herbalist or just dreaming of planting your first small garden, this book is a powerfully rich source of inspiration and information. As Roger B. Swain observes in his moving introduction, Herbs and the Earth has an intensity that evokes the herbs themselves, as if, pressed between the pages, their aroma has seeped into the pages. This Nonpareil edition includes a new afterword by environmentalist, educator, and author, Bill McKibben"--

“Charming, delightful, and a great companion for gardeners and naturalists alike.”—Booklist 
Lavender, basil, hyssop, balm, sage, rue — the thinking gardener’s guide to herbs. Writer/naturalist Henry Beston, a founding father of the environmental movement, believed that a strong connection to nature is essential. “It is only when we are aware of the earth and of the earth as poetry that we truly live,” Beston says in his now-classic Herbs and the Earth. In this book, Beston shares one of those connections as seen through the oldest group of plants known to gardeners. 
“A garden of herbs,” he writes, “is a garden of things loved for themselves in their wholeness and integrity. It is not a garden of flowers, but a garden of plants which are sometimes very lovely flowers and are always more than flowers.” Whether you are already a committed herbalist or just dreaming of planting your first small garden, this book is a powerfully rich source of inspiration and information. As Roger B. Swain observes in his moving introduction, Herbs and the Earth has an intensity that evokes the herbs themselves, as if, pressed between the pages, their aroma has seeped into the pages. 

This Nonpareil edition includes both an introduction by Roger B. Swain and an afterword by Bill McKibben.

An Evocative Excursion into the Lore & Legend of Our Common Herbs

Herbs and the Earth

"Guy Davenport was perhaps the last great American polymath. He provided links between art and literature, music and sculpture, modernist poets and classic philosophers, the past and present-and pretty much everything in between. Not only had Davenport seemingly read (and often translated from the original languages) everything in print, he also had the ability, expressed with unalloyed enthusiasm, to draw connections between how cultural synapses make, define, and reflect our civilization. In this collection, Guy Davenport serves as the reader's guide through history and literature, pointing out the values and avenues of thought that have shaped our ideas and our thinking. In these forty essays we find fresh thinking on Greek culture, Whitman, Spinoza, Wittgenstein, Melville, Tolkien, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, Charles Olson, Marianne Moore, Eudora Welty, Lois Zukovsky, and many others. Each essay is a tour of the history of ideas and imagination, written with wit and startling erudition. This Nonpareil edition includes a new introduction by award-winning essayist John Jeremiah Sullivan."--

“One of the most sinuous stylists and searching minds of the twentieth century.”—Washington Post 
Forty essays on history, art, and literature to lift your mind and spirit. Guy Davenport provides links between music and sculpture, modernist poets and classic philosophers, the past and present—and pretty much everything in between. Not only had Davenport seemingly read (and often translated from the original languages) everything ever written, he also had the ability, expressed with unalloyed enthusiasm, to draw connections between how cultural synapses make, define, and reflect our civilization. Davenport serves as the reader’s guide through history and literature, pointing out the values and avenues of thought that have shaped our ideas and our thinking. In these forty essays we find fresh thinking on Greek culture, Whitman, Spinoza, Wittgenstein, Melville, Tolkien, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, Charles Olson, Marianne Moore, Eudora Welty, Louis Zukovsky, and many others. Each essay is a tour of the history of ideas and imagination, written with wit and startling erudition. 

This Nonpareil edition includes a new introduction by John Jeremiah Sullivan.

Forty Essays

The Geography of the Imagination

First published in 1995 by Metropolitan Books.

A stirring memoir of a young, single woman's laborious struggle to save her family’s New England apple farm from going under during the Great Depression. 

The Orchard is an exquisitely beautiful and poignant memoir of a young woman’s single-handed struggle to save her New England farm in the depths of the Great Depression. Discovered by the author’s daughter after the author’s death, it tells the story of Adele “Kitty” Robertson, young and energetic, but unprepared by her Radcliffe education for the rigors of apple farming in those bitter years of the early 1930s. Alone at the end of a country road, with only a Great Dane for company, plagued by debts, broken machinery, and killing frosts, Kitty revives the old orchard after years of neglect. Every day is a struggle, but every day she is also rewarded by the beauty of the world and the unexpected kindness of neighbors and hired workers. 

Animated by quiet courage and simple goodness, The Orchard is a deeply moving celebration of decency and beauty in the midst of grim prospects and crushing poverty. 

In addition to a foreword and epilogue by Betsy Robertson Cramer, the author's daughter, this Nonpareil edition includes a new afterword by award-winning author Jane Brox.

The Orchard

"Twelve stories of immigrants who struggle against the ancestral past of India to remake their lives-and themselves-in North America. These are stories of fluid and broken identities, discarded languages and deities, the attempt to create bonds with a new community against the ever-present fear of failure and betrayal. 'The narrative of immigration,' Ms. Mukherjee once said, 'is the epic narrative of this millennium.' Her stories and novels brilliantly add to that ongoing saga. In the story, 'The Lady from Lucknow,' a woman is pushed to the limit while wanting nothing more than to fit in. In 'Hindus,' characters discover that breaking away from a culture has deep and unexpected costs. In 'Father,' the clash of cultures leads a man to an act of terrible violence. 'How could he tell these bright, mocking women,' Ms. Mukherjee writes, 'that in the darkness, he sensed invisible presences: gods and snakes frolicked in the master bedroom, little white sparks of cosmic static crackled up the legs of his pajamas. Something was out there in the dark, something that could invent accidents and coincidences to remind mortals that even in Detroit they were no more than mortal.' There is light in these stories as well. The collection's closing story, 'Courtly Vision,' brings to life the world within a Mughal miniature painting and describes a light charged with excitement to discover the immense intimacy of darkness. Readers will also discover that excitement, and the many gradations of darkness and light, throughout these pages from the mind of a master storyteller"

Twelve stories of immigrants who navigate the ancestral past of India as they remake their lives—and themselves—in North America. These are stories of fluid and broken identities, discarded languages and deities, and the attempt to create bonds with a new community against the ever-present fear of failure and betrayal. 
“The narrative of immigration,” Bharati Mukherjee once wrote, “is the epic narrative of this millennium.” Her stories and novels brilliantly add to that ongoing saga. In the story “The Lady from Lucknow,” a woman is pushed to the limit while wanting nothing more than to fit in. In “Hindus,” characters discover that breaking away from a culture has deep and unexpected costs. In “A Father,” the clash of cultures leads a man to an act of terrible violence. “How could he tell these bright, mocking women,” Mukherjee writes, “that in the darkness, he sensed invisible presences: gods and snakes frolicked in the master bedroom, little white sparks of cosmic static crackled up the legs of his pajamas. Something was out there in the dark, something that could invent accidents and coincidences to remind mortals that even in Detroit they were no more than mortal.” 
There is light in these stories as well. The collection’s closing story, “Courtly Vision,” brings to life the world within a Mughal miniature painting and describes a light charged with excitement to discover the immense intimacy of darkness. Readers will also discover that excitement, and the many gradations of darkness and light, throughout these pages from the mind of a master storyteller. Darkness is part of Godine’s Nonpareil series: celebrating the joy of discovery with books bound to be classics.

Darkness

âEURœEarnest, amusing, and contemplative....though Beattie is known for her fiction, her nonfiction has just as much to offer.âEUR?âEUR"Publishers WeeklyâEURœShimmering prose and critical acumen on display in an eclectic collection.âEUR?âEUR"Kirkus ReviewsAs deeply rewarding as her fiction, a selection of Ann BeattieâEUR(TM)s essays, chosen and introduced by the author. From appreciations of writers, photographers, and other artists, to notes on the craft of writing itself, this is a wide-ranging, and always penetrating collection of writing never before published in book form. Ann Beattie, a master storyteller, has been delighting readers since the publication of her short stories in the 1970s and her first novel, Chilly Scenes of Winter. But as her literary acclaim grew and she was hailed âEURœthe voice of her generation,âEUR? Ms. Beattie was also moonlighting as a nonfiction writer. As she writes in her introduction to this collection, âEURœNonfiction always gave me a thrill, even if it provided only an illusion of freedom. Freedom and flexibilityâEUR"for me, those are the conditions under which imagination sparks.âEUR?These penetrating essays are stories unto themselves, closely observed appreciations of life and art. The reader travels with Ms. Beattie to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to learn about the legacy of the painter, Grant Wood, and his iconic painting American Gothic; to the famed University of Virginia campus with her husband, the painter Lincoln Perry; to Key West, Florida for New Years with writer and translator, Harry Mathews; to a roadside near Boston in a broken-down car with the wheelchair-bound writer Andre Dubus. There are explorations of novels, short stories, paintings, and photographs by artists ranging from Alice Munro to Elmore Leonard, from Sally Mann to John Loengard. Whatever the subject, Ms. Beattie brings penetrating insight into literature and art thatâEUR(TM)s both familiar and unfamiliarâEUR"as she writes, âEURœThis, I think, is what artists want to do: find a way to lure the reader or viewer into an alternate realm, to overcome the audienceâEUR(TM)s resistance to being taken away from their own lives and interests and priorities.âEUR? Ann BeattieâEUR(TM)s nonfiction (originally published in Life, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The American Scholar, among others) is a new way to enjoy one of the great writers of her generation. Readers will find much to love in this journey with a curious and fascinating mind. More to Say is part of GodineâEUR(TM)s Nonpareil series: celebrating the joy of discovery with books bound to be classics.

“Earnest, amusing, and contemplative....though Beattie is known for her fiction, her nonfiction has just as much to offer.”—Publishers Weekly “Shimmering prose and critical acumen on display in an eclectic collection.”—Kirkus Reviews As deeply rewarding as her fiction, a selection of Ann Beattie’s essays, chosen and introduced by the author. From appreciations of writers, photographers, and other artists, to notes on the craft of writing itself, this is a wide-ranging, and always penetrating collection of writing never before published in book form. 
Ann Beattie, a master storyteller, has been delighting readers since the publication of her short stories in the 1970s and her first novel, Chilly Scenes of Winter. But as her literary acclaim grew and she was hailed “the voice of her generation,” Ms. Beattie was also moonlighting as a nonfiction writer. As she writes in her introduction to this collection, “Nonfiction always gave me a thrill, even if it provided only an illusion of freedom. Freedom and flexibility—for me, those are the conditions under which imagination sparks.” 
These penetrating essays are stories unto themselves, closely observed appreciations of life and art. The reader travels with Ms. Beattie to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to learn about the legacy of the painter, Grant Wood, and his iconic painting American Gothic; to the famed University of Virginia campus with her husband, the painter Lincoln Perry; to Key West, Florida for New Years with writer and translator, Harry Mathews; to a roadside near Boston in a broken-down car with the wheelchair-bound writer Andre Dubus.

 There are explorations of novels, short stories, paintings, and photographs by artists ranging from Alice Munro to Elmore Leonard, from Sally Mann to John Loengard. Whatever the subject, Ms. Beattie brings penetrating insight into literature and art that’s both familiar and unfamiliar—as she writes, “This, I think, is what artists want to do: find a way to lure the reader or viewer into an alternate realm, to overcome the audience’s resistance to being taken away from their own lives and interests and priorities.” 


Ann Beattie’s nonfiction (originally published in Life, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The American Scholar, among others) is a new way to enjoy one of the great writers of her generation. Readers will find much to love in this journey with a curious and fascinating mind. More to Say is part of Godine’s Nonpareil series: celebrating the joy of discovery with books bound to be classics.

Essays and Appreciations

More to Say

"Funny, touching, revealing, here is the view from a rookie cop's patrol car, during midnight shifts, in a (mostly) peaceful town. With a rich cast of characters, this is a classic memoir of the fear, surprises, excitement, embarrassment that comes with a protecting and serving a small community. "When I was twenty-three years old, five months out of college, with a degree in music, and without any idea of what to do with myself, I took a job as a policeman in Wellfleet, Massachusetts," so writes Alec Wilkinson. "Music, huh?" the police chief said during the job interview. "That'll be a big help." Wilkinson's main qualification was familiarity with the town of 2,000 people from summers there growing up. Committing himself to a year wearing a uniform and carrying a gun, and with no training, Wilkinson was sent out to keep the peace, hoping nothing would happen. There are high-speed chases and stopping drunk drivers, one of whom tries to set Wilkinson's hair on fire. There are domestic squabbles. "The first six months were murder for me," Wilkinson's partner confides on his first night. "After that, when I found out the people I thought were my friends weren't really my friends, I felt better off." There is an attempted bank robbery. The teller convinces the robber that his haul ($300) is too much to carry around in cash. The robber is still listening to investment options when the police arrive. Throughout there are conversations with his eight fellow officers who Wilkinson comes to respect and admire. "Nobody ever calls you when they're behaving themselves," one admits. "As a rule, you always get called when people are at their worst. It's sad. It depresses me." The job is often thankless. "Right now I work on the police force," another officer says, "my wife stamps cans in the supermarket, and she makes more money than I do." Midnights is experiential journalism at its most poignant and entertaining-and it launched the career of Alec Wilkinson: writer, interviewer, essayist, and author. This is for any reader looking for insight into the real lives of police officers, outside of large cities, across America. It is also for anyone looking for a marvelously engaging read"--

“Midnights is both a comedy of errors and an affectionate portrait of small-town police, those beleaguered souls charged with the task of keeping their neighbors in line....A reminder that those assigned to protect are often vulnerable and quietly heroic.”—Time 

Funny, touching, revealing, here is the view from a rookie cop’s patrol car, during midnight shifts, in a (mostly) peaceful town. With a rich cast of characters, this is a classic memoir of the fear, surprises, excitement, embarrassment that comes with a protecting and serving a small community. 



“When I was twenty-three years old, five months out of college, with a degree in music, and without any idea of what to do with myself, I took a job as a policeman in Wellfleet, Massachusetts,” so writes Alec Wilkinson. “Music, huh?” the police chief said during the job interview. “That'll be a big help.” Wilkinson’s main qualification was familiarity with the town of 2,000 people from summers there growing up. Committing himself to a year wearing a uniform and carrying a gun, and with no training, Wilkinson was sent out to keep the peace, hoping nothing would happen. 


There are high-speed chases and stopping drunk drivers, one of whom tries to set Wilkinson's hair on fire. There are domestic squabbles. “The first six months were murder for me,” Wilkinson’s partner confides on his first night. “After that, when I found out the people I thought were my friends weren't really my friends, I felt better off.” There is an attempted bank robbery. The teller convinces the robber that his haul ($300) is too much to carry around in cash. The robber is still listening to investment options when the police arrive. 
Throughout there are conversations with his eight fellow officers who Wilkinson comes to respect and admire. “Nobody ever calls you when they're behaving themselves,” one admits. “As a rule, you always get called when people are at their worst. It's sad. It depresses me.” The job is often thankless. “Right now I work on the police force,” another officer says, “my wife stamps cans in the supermarket, and she makes more money than I do.” 
This is experiential journalism at its most poignant and entertaining—and it launched the career of Alec Wilkinson: writer, interviewer, essayist, and author. This is for any reader looking for insight into the real lives of police officers, outside of large cities, across America. It is also for anyone looking for a marvelously engaging read. Midnights is part of Godine’s Nonpareil series: celebrating the joy of discovery with books bound to be classics.

A Year with the Wellfleet Police

Midnights

"Discover the unique mind and humane vision of an under-recognized American author. Encompassing themes of race, education, fame, law, and America's past and future, these essays are James Alan McPherson at his most prescient and invaluable. Born in segregated 1940s Georgia, McPherson graduated from Harvard Law School only to give up law and become a writer. In 1978, he became the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. But all the while, McPherson was also writing and publishing nonfiction that stand beside contemporaries such as James Baldwin and Joan Didion, as this collection amply proves. These essays range from McPherson's profile of comedian Richard Pryor on the cusp of his stardom; a moving tribute to his mentor, Ralph Ellison; a near fatal battle with viral meningitis; and the story of how McPherson became a reluctant landlord to an elderly Black woman and her family. There are meditations on family as the author travels to Disneyland with his daughter, on the nuances of a neighborhood debate about naming a street after Malcolm X or Dr. Martin Luther King, and, throughout, those connections that make us most deeply human-including connections between writer and reader. McPherson writes of his early education, 'The structure of white supremacy had been so successful that even some of our parents and teachers had been conscripted into policing the natural curiosity of young people. We were actively discouraged from reading. We were encouraged to accept our lot. We were not told that books just might contain extremely important keys which would enable us to break out of the mental jails that have been constructed to contain us.' The collection's curator, Anthony Walton, writes, 'In his nonfiction, McPherson was often looking for a way 'beyond' the morasses in which Americans find themselves mired. His work is a model of humanistic imagining, an attempt to perform a healing that would, if successful, be the greatest magic trick in American history: to 'get past' race, to help create a singular American identity that was no longer marred by the existential tragedies of the nation's first 400 years. He attempted this profound reimagining of America while simultaneously remaining completely immersed in African American history and culture. His achievement demonstrates that an abiding love for black folks and black life can rest alongside a mastery of 'The King's English' and a sincere desire to be received as an American citizen and participant in democracy. It is time for that imaginative work to be fully comprehended and for this simultaneously American and African American genius to assume a fully recognized place beside the other constitutive voices in our national literature.' This is a collection is for any reader seeking a better understanding of our world and a connection to a wise and wickedly funny writer who speaks with forceful relevance and clarity across the decades"--

Discover the unique mind and humane vision of an under-recognized American author. Encompassing themes of race, education, fame, law, and America’s past and future, these essays are James Alan McPherson at his most prescient and invaluable. 
Born in segregated 1940s Georgia, McPherson graduated from Harvard Law School only to give up law and become a writer. In 1978, he became the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. But all the while, McPherson was also writing and publishing nonfiction that stand beside contemporaries such as James Baldwin and Joan Didion, as this collection amply proves. 

These essays range from McPherson’s profile of comedian Richard Pryor on the cusp of his stardom; a moving tribute to his mentor, Ralph Ellison; a near fatal battle with viral meningitis; and the story of how McPherson became a reluctant landlord to an elderly Black woman and her family. 

There are meditations on family as the author travels to Disneyland with his daughter, on the nuances of a neighborhood debate about naming a street after Malcolm X or Dr. Martin Luther King, and, throughout, those connections that make us most deeply human—including connections between writer and reader. McPherson writes of his early education, “The structure of white supremacy had been so successful that even some of our parents and teachers had been conscripted into policing the natural curiosity of young people. We were actively discouraged from reading. We were encouraged to accept our lot. We were not told that books just might contain extremely important keys which would enable us to break out of the mental jails that have been constructed to contain us.” 

The collection’s curator, Anthony Walton, writes, “In his nonfiction, McPherson was often looking for a way ‘beyond’ the morasses in which Americans find themselves mired. His work is a model of humanistic imagining, an attempt to perform a healing that would, if successful, be the greatest magic trick in American history: to ‘get past’ race, to help create a singular American identity that was no longer marred by the existential tragedies of the nation’s first 400 years. He attempted this profound reimagining of America while simultaneously remaining completely immersed in African American history and culture. His achievement demonstrates that an abiding love for black folks and black life can rest alongside a mastery of ‘The King’s English’ and a sincere desire to be received as an American citizen and participant in democracy. It is time for that imaginative work to be fully comprehended and for this simultaneously American and African American genius to assume a fully recognized place beside the other constitutive voices in our national literature.” 
This is a collection is for any reader seeking a better understanding of our world and a connection to a wise and wickedly funny writer who speaks with forceful relevance and clarity across the decades. On Becoming an American Writer is part of Godine’s Nonpareil series: celebrating the joy of discovery with books bound to be classics.

Essays and Nonfiction

On Becoming an American Writer

Originally published: Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran, 1935.

Lavender, basil, hyssop, balm, sage, rue — the thinking gardener’s guide to herbs. Writer/naturalist Henry Beston, a founding father of the environmental movement, believed that a strong connection to nature is essential. “It is only when we are aware of the earth and of the earth as poetry that we truly live,” Beston says in his now-classic Herbs and the Earth. In this book, Beston shares one of those connections as seen through the oldest group of plants known to gardeners. 
“A garden of herbs,” he writes, “is a garden of things loved for themselves in their wholeness and integrity. It is not a garden of flowers, but a garden of plants which are sometimes very lovely flowers and are always more than flowers.” Whether you are already a committed herbalist or just dreaming of planting your first small garden, this book is a powerfully rich source of inspiration and information. As Roger B. Swain observes in his moving introduction, Herbs and the Earth has an intensity that evokes the herbs themselves, as if, pressed between the pages, their aroma has seeped into the pages.

In the 40 essays that constitute this collection, Guy Davenport, one of America's major literary critics, elucidates a range of literary history, encompassing literature, art, philosophy and music, from the ancients to the grand old men of modernism.

In the 40 essays that constitute this collection, Guy Davenport, one of America's major literary critics, elucidates a range of literary history, encompassing literature, art, philosophy and music, from the ancients to the grand old men of modernism.

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Weitere Titel der Reihe: Nonpareil Books