NEW ENGLAND YEAR
By Muriel Follett
Stephen Daye Press, 1940
Yankee Publishing, 1988
Category: Adult Nonfiction (Memoir)
The writing project that most challenges me at the moment is a middle-grade historical novel. This is my first attempt at such a beast, and, truth be told, it is more than challenging. It is terrifying! My rational self recognizes this terror as a good sign; if I didn’t think the work was good, I’d feel nothing but frustration. But the truth is I like this book a great deal. I believe it has a lot of potential.
I also believe it is far from finished. Sigh.
To keep myself focused and to help me stay immersed in the time period I am writing about, I have cleared my bedside table of all the books I planned to read this month. In their stead I have stacked books published between 1920 and 1940, and the pile includes NEW ENGLAND YEAR, by Muriel Follett.
Muriel and Rob Follett raised their two children on a working farm in southeastern Vermont in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1938, Muriel kept a diary of daily life on the farm and someone, bless his or her soul, saw fit to publish it in book form. NEW ENGLAND YEAR is filled with the sorts of details that will help me to set my book in a time and place that was gone before I was born. But NEW ENGLAND YEAR is more than just a research tool; it is a fascinating look at the ways our living (and loving and working and playing and parenting) have changed in the past seventy years. Follett’s delicate narrative is addictive and her experiences a convincing testimonial for country life.