The Pioneer Valley Reader

by O'Connell, James C.

• ISBN13: 9780936399713
• ISBN10: 0936399716
• Edition: 00
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-09-17
• Publisher: Countryman Press

Summary

Prose and poetry from New England's literary heartland: Dickens, Dickenson, Wilbur, Plath, Pynchon and others.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Introduction
Acknowledgments
Geological Imprints	p. 3
The Character of the Connecticut Valley	p. 6
The View from Mt. Holyoke in 1827	p. 11
Upstream from Springfield	p. 15
How Springfield Left Connecticut	p. 21
William Pynchon and "The Road Not Taken"	p. 28
The Burning of Springfield	p. 30
The Redeemed Captive	p. 33
The Bars Fight	p. 38
Deerfield: A Beautiful Ghost	p. 40
Surprising Conversions in Northampton	p. 44
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God	p. 46
Jonathan Edwards in Western Massachusetts	p. 49
Shays's Rebellion	p. 53
Meeting John Brown	p. 57
Sojourner Truth: Stirrings of Abolition	p. 62
Samuel Bowles II	p. 66
The "Social Question"	p. 70
How I Wrote "Looking Backward"	p. 72
The Sirius Community	p. 74
Tax Revolt in Franklin County	p. 78
Washington Slept Here	p. 88
Walk to the Connecticut	p. 90
Down the Deerfield River	p. 94
From Springfield to Hartford	p. 98
The Arsenal at Springfield	p. 100
Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children	p. 104
Upon the Sweeping Flood Aug 13.14. 1683	p. 105
Thanatopsis	p. 106
Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood	p. 108
Poems	p. 110
The Cult of Emily Dickinson	p. 113
October	p. 115
March	p. 115
Hymn Written for the Dedication of a Cemetery	p. 117
Ode: For the Greenfield Soldiers Monument	p. 118
Fire and Ice	p. 119
Letter to The Amherst Student, March 25, 1935	p. 119
Knowing Robert Frost	p. 122
Living on a Poet's Income	p. 129
Two Ghosts	p. 132
Above the Oxbow	p. 135
In Midas' Country	p. 137
Child's Park Stones	p. 138
Mourning Picture	p. 139
The Hawk's Cry in Autumn	p. 141
New England Weather	p. 145
Conway Burying Ground	p. 146
Orchard Trees, January	p. 147
Fern-Beds in Hampshire County	p. 147
A Break in the Weather	p. 149
Climbing the Greasy Pole in Northampton	p. 152
Election Rituals	p. 156
JFK Comes to Springfield	p. 161
Election Anecdotes	p. 168
Noah's Book	p. 172
Flashbacks	p. 177
Like Father	p. 180
The Reincarnation of Peter Proud	p. 186
What Was Lost to Urban Renewal	p. 192
The Hot Summer of '65	p. 195
Picking Up My Father at the Springfield Station	p. 198
The First Basketball Game	p. 204
Nice Guys Finish Last	p. 209
Good Sportsmanship at Deerfield	p. 215
Amherst High Girls Basketball Championship	p. 218
The Parish and the Hill	p. 224
Among Schoolchildren	p. 232
Easter Sunday	p. 240
An American Landscape	p. 246
Village Life in New England	p. 249
Miss Florence Diner	p. 252
Notes from the Transcendental Valley	p. 254
Left Bank Life-style	p. 257
Route Nine	p. 261
Summers in Amherst	p. 264
Five Happy Years	p. 267
Maple Sugaring	p. 271
The Bright Land	p. 273
Politically Correct in Amherst	p. 276
Founding Amherst College	p. 280
Student Life at Mount Holyoke Seminary	p. 283
Student Life at Smith	p. 287
Smith's First Woman President	p. 290
The Architecture of UMass	p. 295
Campus Politics	p. 303
What's New at Frisbee U	p. 310
Headmaster Frank L. Boyden	p. 319
Going Home to Deerfield Academy	p. 323
Quabbin: The Lost Valley	p. 330
Quabbin Reservoir	p. 337
Thinking Regionally	p. 338
House	p. 343
Conway Dairy Farm	p. 347
A Lay Sermon for the Hill Towns	p. 353
Permissions and Sources	p. 357
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.