THE DELECTABLE MOUNTAINS

A new (Eleven Blue Men, The Greener Grass) collection of pieces from the New Yorker explores odd byways of business enterprise and American life. You will visit a potato farm on Long Island and learn something of the history of the potato-much maligned in earlier centuries; the Hitchcock factory in Riverton where the old man's straightbacks are recreated- ""not reproduced""; one of the oldest glass and glazing establishments in New York City, and an art glass works where Bohemian hand-made tableware of particular perfection is made; a farm in New Milford, Connecticut, where purebred Devon oxen are raised; the Whalers' Church in Sag Harbor, where a whole town is living in the past; ""some ladies in retirement"", a Shaker community (one of four to survive) of six women and one man, the youngest is sixty, the eldest ninety-two, who have ""gently backslidden"" in a house built for seventy-five; and finally, you will meet an old man of the sea, a shore whaler off Long Island..... Odd characters, and occupations which offer more than a living, but something of real satisfaction and interest, are open to a special investigation. The material is less remarkable than the earlier books- but the touch is graceful.