“The best essays to have been written about New England.”
—The New York Times
Donald Hall’s memoir of boyhood summers on his grandparents’ small New Hampshire farm has joined the pantheon of New England classics.
Hall’s prose brims with limitless affection for the land and its people, but String Too Short to Be Saved it isn’t mere nostalgia. These are honest accounts about the passing of an agrarian culture, about how Hall’s grandparents aged and their farm became marginal until, finally, the cows were sold and the barn abandoned.
But the story of Eagle Pond Farm continued when Hall returned in 1975 to live out the rest of his life in the house of memories and love and string too short to be saved.
“These vivid New Hampshire farm sketches from Hall’s well-spent youth—all written when he was full-grown—are as much attuned to the supple and enticing utilities of language as they are grounded in a vanished time which may, at a glimpse, seem simple, but were complex and rich and not simple at all.”
—Richard Ford“Since Don Hall passed away, he’s now a sepia part of these legendary Eagle Pond Farm tales, standing tall as one of those Granite State heroes.”
—Carolyn Chute“String Too Short to be Saved memorializes a time that is no more, but can live on forever in the warmth of the heart.”
—Joyce Bupp, Advisor“This collection of personal reminiscences glows with the affection he has for the land, the people, and the customs of rural New England…Each vignette in this poignant collection contains the telltale signs of an era’s end, of a proud culture in transition, and of a land in jeopardy. Not only beautiful writing, it is also a gentle paean to a disappearing landscape and way of life. Extraordinarily well-written and a pleasure to read from beginning to end…very highly recommended.”
—James A. Cox, The Midwest Book Review