CONTRARY COUNTRY: A Ch of Vermont

by Ralph Nading Hill ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 26, 1950

Whether an environment influences its inhabitants may be a moot point--nevertheless Vermont's rock-ribbed hills and corrugated in-between spaces have certainly bred a highly individualistic, hard-headed and independence-loving people from the very earliest days of white settlement in the Green Mountains area. And they are all here- the Green Mountain boys of the Revolution, fire-breathing preachers and strange sects of the Great Revival era of the early 19th century, slavery-hating pastors, abolitionists and hard-working Underground Railroad ""station-masters"", Calvin Coolidge, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith, Eleazar Wheelock, founder and first president of Darthmouth University, Hetty Green, Rudyard Kipling (who once spent four years in the state), et al. Present also are Vermont's artists, politicians, riots and uprisings, ponds that ran away and steamboats that were launched with all attendant honors only to settle firmly into the mud bottom of Lake Champlain. An easy, highly-readable style lends considerable charm and interest to this colorful excursion into local American folkways and makes the book comparable to those of Carl Carmer who ""discovered"" the author.

Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1950

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Rinehart

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1950

Categories: NONFICTION