by Noel Perrin
Don Mahler tracked down some of Ned’s uncollected essays and patiently tracked them down again when I lost them. I’m grateful for his friendship.
Finally, the following people all contributed in some way to the Foreword: MK Beach, Bill Cook, Nancy Crumbine, Jayne Demakos, John Elder, Andy Friedland, Cynthia Huntington, Barbara Krieger, Pat Parenteau, Richard Brooks, Jim Schley, Scott Stokoe, and Tom Slayton. The piece is immeasurably better because of their attention and help.
Thank you all.
PERMISSIONS
Great care has been taken to trace all owners of copyright material included in this book If any have been omitted or overlooked, acknowledgment will gladly be made in future printings.
The essays in Best Person Rural originally appeared in the following publications:
Boston Magazine: “Vermont Silences”; Country Journal: “Sugaring on $15 a Year,” “In Search of the Perfect Fence Post,” “Best Little Woods Tool Going,” “Maple Recipes for Simpletons,” “The Rural Immigration Law,” “Birth in the Pasture,” “How to Farm Badly (And Why You Should)” “A Truck With Pull,” and “My Farm Is Safe Forever”; Harrowsmith: “The Lesson of the Bolt Weevils”; Inquiry: “Nuclear Disobedience”; The Los Angeles Times: “Two Letters to Los Angeles”; Upcountry: “The Year We Really Heated with Wood”; Valley News: “The Guardian Angels of Tucker Hill Road,” “Life on Nothing a Week,” and “Farewell to a Thetford Farm”; Vermont Life: “Grooming Bill Hill” and “The Two Faces of Vermont”; Yankee: “Break & Enter.” “Jan Lincklaen’s Vermont” first appeared in First Person Rural. “The Soul of New England” first appeared in Last Person Rural; “A Vermont Christmas” is reprinted by permission of Land’s End, Inc.
Photograph on page ii reprinted courtesy of Medora Hebert; photographs on pages 33 and 67 by Richard W. Brown; photograph on page 103 by Robert Pope, reprinted by permission of Valley News; photograph on page 141 by Jennifer Hauck, preprinted by permission of Valley News. Our thanks to the staff of Vermont Life for their assistance in locating some of the photographs used in this volume.