History and Quotes

I've had some correspondence lately with Glenn Pearsall, who has just published his book "Echoes in These Mountains: Historic Sites and Stories Disappearing in Johnsburg, an Adirondack Community," a really interesting work about the history of the town just north of my home in the Adirondacks. Glenn selected fifty-five sites in Johnsburg, NY, about which to share both documented history and oral tradition. He writes, too, about the folks associated with them, as well as supplying a very generous number of photographs and the GPS coordinates so the reader can go find the sites, if he chooses. It's a great book about a small town that has been touched by some most notable people. See my complete review on BookPleasures.com and Amazon.

I'll bet Glenn does what my husband and I do in the spring. Before the trees fully leaf out and obscure the landscape, we drive around the back roads and take note of the old cellar holes with toppled chimneys, silent testimonials to another era. We wonder who lived, worked and died there, how and when. We note the day lily sprouts heroically poking through the dead leaves for yet another season, and lilac buds swelling on bushes that faithfully stand sentinal beside the house. If only they could talk and tell the tales!

Since writing his book, Glenn says, he keeps stumbling across quotes about writing, and he shared a couple of great ones with me:

Jeff Mallet, creator of the cartoon "Frazz" says: "Writing well meant never having to say, 'I guess you had to be there!'"

And the following zinger is attributed to Samuel Johnson: "Your manuscript is both good and original. Unfortunately, the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good."

OUCH!

On that note, I'm going back to edit the article I'm working on.

Best--
Perky