Center for the Book at the Book Notes State Library April 2006 Vol. 2 , Supplement

New Hampshire’s Poets Laureate

position of Poet Laureate. The board pointment as New Hampshire Poet by Mary A. Russell, Director Laureate. “I really was not their NH Center for the Book voted unanimously (Mr. Mowrer, a member of the board, abstained) in choice,” Miss Vinton explained in the favor of the choice and authorized the Concord Monitor in February On April 20, 1967, New Hampshire PSNH president to write to Gover- 1976. “They were working to have RSA230 was signed into law and the nor John King with their recommen- a five-year appointment when the position of Poet Laureate of New dation. At a Governor and Council governor named me for a lifetime. I Hampshire was established, effective meeting held September 19, 1968, really do not subscribe to the view June 19, 1967: “There is hereby es- Paul Scott Mowrer of Chocorua was that there should be a five-year ap- tablished the position of poet laure- nominated to be New Hampshire’s pointment. I think the appointment ate for the state. The governor, with first poet laureate. Despite his hav- deserves the dignity of a lifetime ap- the advice and consent of the coun- ing been present at the May PSNH pointment.” Miss Vinton’s views did cil, shall appoint the poet laureate. meeting, it was reported in the local not sway the legislature, however, and Said person so honored shall be a papers that Mr. Mowrer was un- in 1977, House Bill 329 was intro- resident of the state and he shall serve aware of his nomination until his duced by Rep. Andrea A. Scranton in such position during his lifetime.” neighbors began congratulating him. of Keene limiting the term of the Poet The law goes on to recommend that He was unanimously confirmed as Laureate to five years, with no re- “prior to the appointment of a poet New Hampshire Poet Laureate in striction on reappointment, to take laureate the board of directors of the December of 1968. During his ten- effect “upon the expiration of the Society of New Hampshire ure Mr. Mowrer was honored at sev- term of the person who holds the shall submit to the governor and eral gatherings around the state and, position of poet laureate on the ef- council the name or names of per- at the urging of Union Leader edi- fective date of this act.” This bill was sons whom they deem worthy of the tor William Loeb, he worked with a approved April 15, 1977. This is the honorary position. Upon the death of local composer, Thomas Powers of current law regarding New a poet laureate the society shall again Bedford, to set his poem “New Hampshire’s poet laureate. submit to the governor and council a Hampshire Hills” to music. It became name or names for a successor. The the state’s third official state song (un- Continues on page 13 position thus established shall be an der House Bill 988) in June 1973. honorary one and the poet laureate shall not be entitled to compensa- On August 9, 1972 – four months INSIDE THIS ISSUE tion.” This law had been introduced after the death of Paul Scott Mowrer by Representative Greene of – Eleanor Winthrop Vinton of Con- Eleanor Vinton 2 Rockingham District 22 at the urging cord was confirmed by the Gover- Paul Scott Mowrer 3 nor and Council as the state’s sec- Richard Eberhart 4 of the Poetry Society of New Hamp- 6 shire (PSNH), which made Mrs. ond poet laureate. She had been 9 Greene an honorary member of the nominated several weeks earlier by Jane Kenyon 11 Society that June. Governor Walter R. Peterson. He had Marie Harris 12 been supplied with a list of nominees Reader Recommendations 14 The PSNH held a board of direc- by the PSNH, which was also work- Cynthia Huntington 14 tors meeting May 14, 1967, at which ing on legislation to limit the appoint- Patricia Fargnoli 15 Raymond C. Swain nominated Paul ment to five years. He chose to nomi- The Authors’ Room at NHSL 16 Scott Mowrer for the honorary nate Miss Vinton for a lifetime ap-

April 2006 - 1 Center for the Book Eleanor Winthrop Vinton at the New Hampshire 1899-1977 State Library Born in Stoneham, Mass. on July Highlights, Hartford Courant, 25, 1899, Eleanor Winthrop Vinton Journal of the American Medical Mary A. Russell, Director was one of five children of Clarence Association, Kaleidograph, La- 603-271-2866 D. and Annie M. (Downs) Vinton. dies Home Journal, Life, Lynn [email protected] Her family moved to Concord, N.H. Sunday Post, Manchester Union in 1908 and Miss Vinton lived there Leader, Monitor of Newark (NJ), for the rest of her life. Following in New Hampshire Club Woman, 2006 Advisory Board the footsteps of her grandmother New Hampshire Profiles, New and her sister she began writing Hampshire Sunday News, New Chair Becky Albert poetry in grammar school. She Hampshire Patriot, New York NH Educational Media Association graduated from Concord High Sun, Nutmegger, Portland Or- School in 1918. Her first published egonian, Spur, Sunburst, Kansas Vice-Chair poem appeared in the Concord City Star, Town and Country, and Andrea Thorpe High School magazine, and as class Yankee. She explained in a news- NH Library Association poet she wrote verses for the school paper interview in 1973 that she be- paper on each of her 45 fellow came a professional poet in 1928 Van McLeod classmates. After high school she when the Chicago Daily News paid NH Dept. of Cultural Resources started at Concord Business Col- her $2 for the verse “Leap Year.” lege, but had to leave soon after she She served as editor and contribu- Dr. Lyonel B. Tracy had begun to care for her dying tor to An Anthology of NH Po- NH Dept. of Education mother. After her mother’s death etry, NH Federation of Women’s Michael York she kept house for her father and Clubs, 1938. Miss Vinton’s first New Hampshire State Library then for a bachelor uncle. During book of poetry, Sounding Piquant these years she also worked as a Verses, was published in 1940. Her Barbara Yoder clerk at Apple Tree Book Shop second volume, On the New Hampshire Writers’ Project

Deborah Watrous NH Humanities Council “I have to write. Something is wrong with me if I’m not writing.” —E.W.V. on the occasion of her Patricia Fargnoli confirmation as NH Poet Laureate (August, 1972). Poet Laureate of New Hampshire

Carrie Thomas (1929-1952) and then as a practi- Contoocook, and Other Poems Colby-Sawyer College cal nurse in private homes (1955- was published by William L. Bauhan 1965). In later years Miss Vinton of Dublin, N.H. in 1974. Jackie Gardner, CHILIS lived with her widowed sister, Mrs. Clara E. Sims, in a small white Eleanor Vinton enjoyed reading bi- Sally Jones house at 8 Humphrey Street in Con- ographies, gardening, playing the pi- NH Library Trustees Association cord. ano, and swimming. She was also active in a variety of organizations Pat Frisella Throughout her life Miss Vinton Poetry Society of New Hampshire throughout her life. She served as wrote poetry which was published president of the Concord-Stratford Eleanor Strang in numerous newspapers, maga- Shakespeare Club (1969-1971); Urban Public Library Consortium zines, and journals including Bos- was a member of the Concord ton Globe, Boston Herald, Bos- Women’s Club, the NH Historical Willard Williams ton Post, Bostonian, Chicago Society, the Epiphany Chapter of Toadstool Bookshops Daily News, Christian Science O.E.S. Concord, the Western Monitor, Concord Monitor, Den- World Haiku Society, and the Con- Katie McDonough ver Post, Diplomat, Farm Jour- cord Music Club; was a charter Kimball Public Library, Atkinson nal, Granite Monthly, Haiku member of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire, and an honorary Paul Scott Mowrer member of the Massachusetts Po- 1887-1971 etry Society. Paul Scott Mowrer was born in war service in France from 1914 According to the minutes of the Bloomington, Ill. on July 14, 1887 to1918; official war correspondent PSNH Spring Meeting, March 27, to Rufus and Nellie (Scott) Mowrer. accredited to the French Army from 1965: “The Richard Recchia Medal He had one brother, the columnist 1917 until the end of WWI; head of was awarded to Eleanor Vinton for Edgar Ansel Mowrer, who was born the Chicago Daily News Peace her sonnet entitled ‘Sonnet to TV’ in1892. His father was a merchant Conference Bureau from 1918 and was presented to her by Kitty and the family was forced by his busi- to1919; associate editor and chief Parsons.” She was the recipient of ness troubles to move to Chicago editorial writer 1934-5; editor from numerous other prizes over the years when Paul was in the sixth grade. He 1935 to1944. as well, including Poetry Society of graduated from Hyde Park High NH prizes awarded to “Flashback,” School in Chicago in 1905. While a In 1918, Mowrer published his first “Sonnet for Redheads,” “Broad student there he had begun writing volume of poetry: Hours of France Cove,” and “Lines on a Theme of poetry and was coeditor of the in Peace and War. His second Finality” and NH Federation of school’s literary magazine, The Hyde book came out of his experiences as Women’s Clubs prizes for “Andrew Parker. Immediately after graduat- Paris Correspondent during the first Jackson’s Concord Weekend” and ing his perseverance landed him his Balkan War: Balkanized Europe: A “The Bow Controversy.” first job as a reporter for the Chi- Study in Political Analysis and Re- cago Daily News. construction (1921). He continued Eleanor Vinton was named as the writing books and articles on politi- second New Hampshire Poet Lau- He left the paper from 1906 to 1908 cal topics as well as publishing po- reate in August 1972 by Governor to attend the University of Michigan etry and several plays throughout his Walter Peterson who called her on where he took the classes that inter- career. July 25th (her birthday) to notify her ested him and served as editor of the of her appointment. She was sug- Michigan Daily, a university paper. The first Pulitzer Prize given for cor- gested for the post, which was a life- time appointment at that time, by Dorothy Kendall, president of the Shakespeare Club. She was hon- “Poetry is not architecture, yet it should have a well- ored at a reception at the McDowell built form. It is not painting, yet it should depict. It is Colony on October 22, 1972. The not sculpture, yet is should be chiseled. It is not music, reception was co-hosted by the yet it should sing.” MacDowell Colony director and — P.S.M., The Mothering Land (1960), p. xxiv. Governor and Mrs. Walter Peterson. Miss Vinton had never worked at the colony; much of her writing was He did not receive a degree until the respondence was awarded to done while at camp on the university made him an Honorary Mowrer in 1928 “for his coverage Contoocook River. As Poet Laure- Doctor of Letters in 1941. While at of international affairs including the ate she continued to write poems college he met Winifred Adams, Franco-British Naval Pact and which appeared in various publica- whom he married on May 8, 1909. Germany’s campaign for revision of tions and to do readings for local They had two children: Richard Scott the Dawes Plan.” He also earned the events. Mowrer and David A. Mowrer. Sigma Delta Chi National Scholar- ship Award in 1932 for his writings Eleanor Vinton died at Concord Paul Scott Mowrer returned to the as a foreign correspondent and had Hospital September 12, 1977, at the Chicago Daily News in 1908 and been one of eight correspondents age of 83. She was buried at the remained there until 1945. He held a who received the French Legion of Blossom Hill Cemetery. Services variety of positions during his career Honor in April 1918. He was pro- were held on September 16, 1977, at the Daily News including Paris moted to “officer” in 1933. That at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, correspondent beginning in 1910; same year he and Winifred divorced, where Miss Vinton had been a pa- director of the Chicago Daily News and on July 3, 1933, he married rishioner. Former Governor Walter Peterson was an honorary pallbearer. Continues on page 8

April 2006 - 3 Richard Eberhart 1904-2005 Richard Eberhart was a founder and Honorary President of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire and served as New Hampshire Poet Laureate from 1979-1984.

In Memoriam: Richard been included in hundreds of antholo- time at Dartmouth until the mid- Ghormley Eberhart gies. 1980s. From 1975 until the mid-80s he was also a Distinguished Visiting Reprinted Courtesy of Dartmouth President Professor at the University of Florida said, “The passing of Dick Eberhart in Gainesville, his winter home. Office of Public Affairs represents a substantial loss to Dartmouth, the world of poetry and From 1959 to 1961, Professor the world at large. His presence and Eberhart was Consultant in Poetry Richard Ghormley Eberhart, Pulitzer his work graced all three. We will at the , in which Prize-winning poet and Dartmouth miss him greatly.” position he succeeded poet Robert College Class of 1925 Professor of Frost. In 1959, he was appointed by English, Emeritus, died June 9, 2005 Born in Austin, on April President Eisenhower to the Advi- at age 101. 5, 1904, Eberhart received a B.A. sory Committee on the Arts for the from Dartmouth. After working his National Cultural Center in Washing- Professor Eberhart, a 1926 gradu- way across the South Pacific as a ton. He received honorary doctor of ate of Dartmouth, died of natural steamship crewman, he made his way letters degrees from Dartmouth, causes in Hanover, N.H. after a short to England where he went on to earn Skidmore College, the College of illness. A memorial service will be a B.A. and an M.A. from St. John’s Wooster and Colgate University. He held in Rollins Chapel on the College at Cambridge University. He was also named an honorary vice Dartmouth campus at 2 p.m. Sun- studied at the Harvard Graduate president of The Butcher Polish day, June 19. A reception will follow School of Arts and Sciences in 1932- Company and appointed to its board at the Top of the Hop. 33. Shortly after his return from En- of directors. In 1991, the Austin Pub- gland, he was recruited to tutor the lic High School in Minnesota renamed Professor Eberhart was regarded as son of King Prajhadipok of Siam its library the Richard Eberhart Me- one of the nation’s finest and most (now ), for which he was dia Center during a community-wide highly honored poets. Winner of the awarded the keys to the city of celebration. That same year, he and 1966 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, the Bangkok and the Order of the Royal his wife turned their family home at 5 for Poetry from the White Elephant, Third Class. Webster Terrace over to Dartmouth, Yale University Library and the Na- which marked the site with a plaque tional Book Award, he also served During World War II, he served in honoring his accomplishments. In as New Hampshire’s Poet Laureate the U.S. Naval Reserve as a Lieu- 2004, Dartmouth celebrated Profes- from 1979 to 1984 and as a fellow tenant and Lt. Commander and on sor Eberhart’s life and work for his in the Academy of American Poets. his discharge, worked as the assis- 100th birthday, renaming its poetry He authored more than a dozen vol- tant manager to the vice president of reading room in his honor. umes of verse and verse drama. His The Butcher Polish Company in Bos- works include A Bravery of Earth ton. In 1952, he returned to teach- Those who knew him remember Pro- (1930), Undercliff (1953), Shifts of ing, serving as poet-in-residence, fessor Eberhart as warm-hearted, Being (1968), and Ways of Light professor and lecturer at a variety of energetic and generous of spirit. His (1980). His poems are collected in institutions of higher learning, includ- poetry, though contemplative and Selected Poems, 1930-1965, for ing the , the philosophical, was characterized by which he was awarded the Pulitzer University of Connecticut, Wheaton this passion and energy as well. Ac- Prize, Collected Poems, 1930- College and Princeton. In 1956, he cepting his National Book Award in 1976 (1976), The Long Reach: New was appointed Professor of English 1977, he told the assembly, “Poets and Uncollected Poems, 1948- and Poet-in-Residence at should not die for poetry but should 1984 (1984), and New and Selected Dartmouth. In 1968, he was named live for it,” and it is in his poetry that Poems: 1930-1990 (1990). His Class of 1925 Professor of English he will live in the public memory, as Collected Verse Plays was pub- and in 1970, he entered semi-retire- the author of such verses as “The lished in 1962 and his poems have ment, but continued to teach part- Groundhog” which begins:

4 - April 2006 “I think the Poet Laureate is a position that Support the honors poetry. It is important to any state, Center for the Book to any state of mind of the populace, so that at the NHSL poetry in our state would be better served. It’s not a vainglorious thing. I didn’t put in Name: for it. If there were any work involved, I Organization: wouldn’t have accepted. But I like to think I’m open-minded to about everything, I Mailing Address: wouldn’t be adverse to writing an occasional poem as poet laureate.” —R.E. in a 1979 interview with City: the Concord Monitor State: Zip: E-mail:

In June, amid the golden fields, spent more than four decades sum- Annual Membership I saw a groundhog lying dead. mering in Maine on Cape Rosier Levels Dead lay he; my senses shook, where he would skipper his pride and and mind outshot our naked frailty. joy, a cruiser he named Rêve. In it, Members receive Book Notes, There lowly in the vigorous summer he ferried his large circle of fellow our semiannual newsletter. His form began its senseless change, poets, writers and artists to islands And made my senses waver dim for summer picnics. Supporter $5 - $24 Seeing nature ferocious in him. Friend $25 - $99 He spent his final years living quietly Contributor $100 - $499 at Kendal-at-Hanover, a retirement Patron $500 - $999 Professor Eberhart’s friend and col- community. Benefactor $1000 & up league Cleopatra Mathis, Professor of English and Director of Professor Eberhart is survived by two Dartmouth’s Creative Writing Pro- children, son Richard Eberhart ’68 gram, remembers him warmly, say- of Phippsburg, Me. and daughter Enclosed is my check ing, “Dick was one of our finest Gretchen Eberhart Cherington of for $ ______payable to American poets, not only in his work Meriden, N.H. and six grandchildren: Park Street Foundation but in his embrace of other poets. He Ben Cherington of Boston, Molly was generous and openhearted, and Cherington of Denver, Lena Eberhart in that way, his life exemplified what of Brooklyn, N.Y., James Eberhart, † Personal Member his poems expressed.” currently serving with the Peace † Organization Member Corp in Bulgaria, Samuel Eberhart He loved the immortal qualities of and Rosalind Eberhart of The Park Street Foundation serves poetry as he explained in an inter- Phippsburg, Me. as the fiscal agent of the Center for view in 1979, “Poems in a way are the Book at the NH State Library and spells against death. They are mile- Memorial gifts may be made to the is a tax-exempt 501c(3) organization. stones to see where you are now, to Austin Public Education Foundation Your contribution is tax-deductible perpetuate your feelings, to establish for the benefit of the Richard Eberhart to the extent allowed by law. them. If you have in any way touched Poetry Prizes established by his family the central heart of mankind’s feel- in 1994 annually to honor young po- Center for the Book ings, you’ll survive.” ets in grades K-12 from his home at the New Hampshire town. Donations may be sent to: State Library Professor Eberhart was married to Austin Public Education Foundation, 20 Park Street, Helen Elizabeth “Betty” Butcher from Richard Eberhart Poetry Prizes, P.O. Concord, NH 03301 1941 until her death in 1993. They Box 878, Austin, MN 55912.

April 2006 - 5 Maxine Kumin

Maxine Winokur Kumin was born on phy in the Contemporary Authors they had three children. As a young June 6, 1925, in Philadelphia. She Autobiography Series in 1989. mother she was a Great Books dis- spent her youth in Germantown, Pa., cussion leader and worked as a a suburb of Philadelphia. Her father In April 1945, she met Army Ser- medical writer. She has described worked as a pawnbroker in the busi- geant Victor Kumin (Harvard ’43) this time in her career, when she ness that his father, Max Winokur, on a blind date. They were married wrote poetry only for herself, as started. Her family history provided in June 1946, following Maxine’s unfulfilling. what she has referred to as “tribal graduation from Radcliffe. Between material” for her poetry, and she 1948 — when Maxine Kumin com- In March 1953, Kumin sold a qua- wrote at some length about the mem- pleted her Masters in Comparative train, “Factually Speaking,” to the bers of her tribe for an autobiogra- Literature at Radcliffe — and 1953, Christian Science Monitor and was soon publishing similar work in a va- riety of publications. In the winter of 1956, she attended a poetry work- The Poetry of Maxine Kumin shop at the Boston Center for Adult Education, where she met Anne Sex- Bringing Together: Uncollected Early Poems, 1958-1988. ton. The two women – though very New York: W.W. Norton, 2003. different in their styles, poetic and otherwise – became friends, co-au- Closing the Ring: Selected Poems. Lewisburg, Pa.: Press of thors of children’s books and sup- Appletree Alley, Bucknell University, 1984. porters of one another’s work. In October 1974, com- Connecting the Dots : Poems. New York: Norton, 1996. mitted suicide. In 1979, Kumin told an audience at a Women’s Writer’s Halfway. New York: Holt, Rhinehart and Winston, 1961. Conference that she was concerned that she could not write after Sexton died as she had been a vital link be- House, Bridge, Fountain, Gate. New York: Viking Press, 1975. tween the poet and her own art. Kumin did continue to write, how- The Long Approach: Poems. New York: Viking, 1985. ever, including a series of elegies for Sexton that were included in Our The Long Marriage: Poems. New York: W.W. Norton, 2002. Ground Time Here Will be Brief.

Looking for Luck: Poems. New York: Norton, 1992. Maxine Kumin taught at a variety of schools over the years including The Nightmare Factory. New York: Harper & Row, 1970. Tufts, , Princeton, and MIT. She was on the Nurture: Poems. New York: Viking, 1989. staff of the Bread Loaf Writers Con- ference during the 1970s and the Our Ground Time Here Will be Brief. New York: Viking Press, Sewanee Writers Conference in 1993. 1982. Since 1963, Maxine Kumin and her The Privilege. New York: Harper & Row, 1965. family have lived on a farm in Warner, N.H., which has allowed her to fill The Retrieval System: Poems. New York: Viking, 1978. her life with animals, including reha- bilitating abused horses. She has trav- Selected Poems, 1960-1990. New York: Norton, 1997. eled extensively to teach and pro- mote poetry, including participating Up Country; Poems of New England, New and Selected. New in the US Information Agency’s Arts York: Harper & Row, 1972. America Tour in 1983.

6 - April 2006 “Maybe my poetry will save some of those particular observations of roots in the soil, the shape My Elusive Guest and the taste and the feel of vegetables as they grow, the texture of life in the Thoreau loved the grayness of them, homespun country, which is not God with leafy horns like lichen made of bone. and butterflies and God’s own horses, poor timid creatures, he said brownies but black flies in 1846 in THE MAINE WOODS and lizards and frozen and then went on to wonder why they stood pipes and sick animals, so high at the shoulders, why so long a head, and death, just as much as it is the autumn leaves and no tail to speak of. How like the camelopard, blue lakes.” he said, rolling the archaic word —M.W.K. on his tongue: high before and low behind LC Information Bulletin, and stayed admiring them, upwind. October 16, 1981. A hundred years later, the widow Blau Ms. Kumin has won numerous whose rockbound farm I now inhabit awards and grants including the broomed a moose out of her kitchen garden Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1973 and thinking it the neighbor’s brown cow The Sarah Josepha Hale Award in marauding among the vegetables at dawn 1992. In 1981, Ms. Kumin was cho- sen to serve as Poetry Consultant to then looked up to behold those rabbit the Library of Congress. In 1989, she ears, that wet nearsighted eye became the New Hampshire Poet that ferny rack of gray on a still-gray sky Laureate. and none since. Spring mornings at first light sometimes through fog some heavy weight At the age of 73, Kumin suffered a broken neck and severe internal in- shifts and wavers against the line of trees juries while preparing a horse for and wanting it in my blood, like a spray competition. She described her re- of musk, I beckon the elusive guest, covery from this accident in the book willing it close. My wild thing, my moose. Inside the Halo and Beyond. Maxine Kumin continues to be a pro- lific writer and has published poetry, — Maxine Kumin novels, essays, short stories, and children’s books. From Selected Poems, 1960-1990, W. W. Norton & Co., 1997. Reprinted with the permission of the poet. In a 2002 interview in The Hippo Press, Kumin was asked how she felt about her life: “. . . I’m here, I’m mo- bile and I am still writing!” This newsletter has been made possible in part through funds Book Notes (ISSN 1554-3609) is published twice per year by administered by the New the Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library, Hampshire State Library and 20 Park Street, Concord, NH 03301-6314. provided by the Institute of Museum (c) 2006. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in and Library Services, a federal part without permission is prohibited. agency that fosters innovation, leadership and a lifetime of http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/bookcenter learning.

April 2006 - 7 Paul Scott Mowrer Continued from p. 3 Hadley Richardson Hemingway ment to Chocorua, N.H.in 1948. the Poetry Society of New Hamp- (the first Mrs. Ernest Hemingway). shire (PSNH), of which he was a Mowrer became the European edi- In New Hampshire, Mowrer contin- charter member. He served as the tor of the New York Post in 1945 ued to write poetry and was involved guest speaker, reading his poetry at and remained there until his retire- in several poetry societies, including the Society’s first meeting. He was an active member of the Society in- cluding serving as chairman of the National Poeteen High School The Poetry of Paul Scott Mowrer Awards. He recorded his poetry for the Library of Congress in 1961 and And Let the Glory Go: Poems. Sanbornville, N.H.: Wake-Brook won the Lyric Poetry Award for tra- House, 1955. ditional poetry in 1961 and 1962. In October 1965, his poem “O Little The Good Comrade and Fairies. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1923. Men” was selected as the winner of the PSNH Poetry contest. At an Ex- High Mountain Pond. Francestown, N.H.: Golden Quill Press, ecutive Board meeting of the Soci- 1962. ety in 1965 “by unanimous vote Paul Scott Mowrer was nominated as Poet Laureate.” Hours of France in Peace and War. New York: E.P. Dutton and Company, 1918. The official position of New Hamp- shire Poet Laureate was not estab- The Island Ireland. Francestown, N.H.: Golden Quill Press, 1966. lished by the NH Legislature until 1967. However, Governor John W. The Mothering Land: Selected Poems, 1918-1958. Francestown, King and the Executive Council fol- N.H.: Golden Quill Press, 1960. lowed the lead of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire and voted to ap- On Going to Live in New Hampshire. Sanbornville, N.H.: point Mowrer the first Poet Laure- Wake-Brook House, 1953. ate of New Hampshire in Septem- ber 1968. At a PSNH meeting held Poems Between Wars: Hail Illinois! France Farewell. With an in June 1969 Mowrer explained about being Poet Laureate: “I was appreciation by and a preface by Donald Culross much impressed with the commission, Peattie; illustrations by Frank Sohn. Chicago: L. Mariano, 1941. but I had to take an oath of loyalty to the state.” At that time the Poet Lau- The Poems of Paul Scott Mowrer, 1918-1966. Revised and reate was appointed for life and rearranged by the Author. Francestown, NH, Golden Quill Mowrer went on to say “that’s pretty Press, 1968. tough, a life sentence, what’s more, I’m only 82 years old and I could be School for Diplomats. With an introduction by Loy W. Henderson; hanging around for the next 50 years. illustrated by Emery Kelen. Francestown, N.H.: Golden Quill Press But there’s a way out of that, too; it 1964. says my tenure is subject to good be- havior.” This Teeming Earth. Decorated with 28 cymbolics by Jeanne Caskie. Francestown, N.H.:Golden Quill Press, 1965. Mowrer’s tenure as New Hampshire’s first Poet Laureate was, sadly, shorter than he anticipated. He Twenty-one and Sixty-five: Poems. Mill Valley, Ca.: Wings died April 7, 1971, at age 83 while Press, 1958. vacationing in Beaufort, S.C.

8 - April 2006 Donald Hall The Poetry of Donald Hall Donald Andrew Hall, Jr., was born The Alligator Bride. New York: Harper, 1969. September 20, 1928, in New Ha- ven, Connecticut. He grew up in a A Blue Wing Tilts at the Edge of the Sea. London: Secker “literary household” where poetry & Warburg, 1975. was read and recited and reading was a large part of his life from an Brief Lives. Concord, N.H.: William B. Ewert, 1983. early age. He began writing at age 12 and continued through prep The Dark Houses. New York: Viking, 1958. school (Exeter) and college. At the age of 16 he attended the Bread Loaf Writers Conference and the same Exiles and Marriages. New York: Viking, 1955. year his first published poem ap- peared in Trails, a small magazine The Gentleman’s Alphabet Book. New York: Dutton, 1972. published in Esperance, N.Y. Great Day in the Cows’ House. Mt. Carmel, Conn.: Ives Street Hall attended , Press, 1984. from which he received a B.A. in 1951. In September 1952, he mar- The Happy Man. New York: Random House, 1986. ried Kirby Thompson and they went to live in England, where Hall at- Here at Eagle Pond. New York: Houghton, 1992. tended Oxford. While there, he won Oxford University’s Newdigate Prize Kicking the Leaves. New York: Harper, 1978. for his poem “Exile” and was widely reported to be the first American to have done so. In fact, he was the third Museum of Clear Ideas. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1993. American to earn this honor. He re- ceived his B. Litt. from Oxford in Old and New Poems. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1990. 1953. The couple returned to the U.S. and Hall had a fellowship at The Old Life. New York: Houghton, 1996. Stanford University for a year before returning to Boston to spend three The One Day. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1988. years in the Society of Fellows at Harvard. The Painted Bed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002.

During this period Hall took on a A Roof of Tiger Lilies. New York: Viking, 1955. variety of projects including serving as poetry editor for Paris Review (1953-1961), doing radio broad- To the Loud Wind and Other Poems. Cambridge, Mass.: casts for the BBC (1959-1980), and Harvard Advocate, 1955. getting involved with The Poet’s The- ater (founded by Richard Eberhart). The Town of Hill. Boston: Godine, 1975. Hall’s first book of poems, Exiles and Marriages, was put together The Toy Bone. Brockport, N.Y.: Boa Editions, 1979. during his years in the Society of Fel- lows at Harvard and was published The Twelve Seasons. Deerfield, Mass.: Deerfield Press, 1983. in 1955. His first published book of prose, about the summers he spent Without. New York: Houghton, 1998. on his grandparents’ New Hampshire farm, was entitled String Too Short The Yellow Room: Love Poems. New York: Harper, 1971. to be Saved and was published in 1961. White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Selected Poems 1946-2006. Continues on page 10 Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006.

April 2006 - 9 Continued from p. 9 The Work Hall planned to get out of New England entirely when he began to look for of Jane Kenyon work following his Harvard fellowhip and he took the best job that was offered – it was also the one farthest away — at the University of Michigan, The Boat of Quiet Hours: Ann Arbor. The family, which now included two children, Andrew and Poems. Saint Paul, Minn.: Philippa, moved to Ann Arbor in 1957. Hall and his wife divorced in 1969. Graywolf Press, 1986. Aside from two separate years when Hall went to England to write, he taught at the University of Michigan until 1975. Throughout this time he Collected Poems. Saint Paul, continued to write and publish extensively and to edit various publications. Minn.: Graywolf Press, 2005. He met Jane Kenyon, a student at the University, in 1969. They began courting in 1971 and were married on April 17, 1972. Constance: Poems. Saint Paul, Minn.: Graywolf Press, 1993. In 1975, Hall bought the New Hampshire farm that had belonged to his maternal grandparents, where he had spent his boyhood summers. From Room to Room: Poems. He had taken a leave of absence from the University and went to New Cambridge, Mass.: Alice James Hampshire with Jane Kenyon. It didn’t take long before the couple Books, 1978. realized that they were in New Hampshire to stay. In August 1976, they moved to “Eagle Pond Farm for good with seven thousand books and A Hundred White Daffodils: two tons of manuscript.” (Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series, Essays, the Akhmatova vol. 7, p. 66) They lived there together until Jane Kenyon’s death in 1995. Translations, Newspaper Donald Hall was appointed Columns, Notes, Interviews, New Hampshire Poet Laure- and One Poem. Saint Paul, Scenic View ate in 1984 and again in 1995 Minn.: Graywolf Press, 1999. when he was asked to fill the Every year the mountains post for the remainder of Jane Let Evening Come: Poems. get paler and more distant – Kenyon’s term. Saint Paul, Minn.: Graywolf Press, 1990. trees less green, rock piles Throughout his long career Hall disappearing – as emulsion has given thousands of poetry from a billion Kodaks readings at colleges, universi- Otherwise: New and Selected. sucks color out. ties, schools, libraries, prisons, Saint Paul, Minn.: Graywolf Press, 1996. In fifteen years and community centers. He has published dozens of books, ar- Monadnock and Kearsarge, ticles, and poems and has re- Twenty Poems. By Anna the Green Mountains ceived numerous awards in- Andreevna Akhmatova; and the White, will turn cluding the Sarah Josepha Hale translated by Jane Kenyon invisible, all Award in 1983 and the Na- and Vera Sandomirsky tint removed tional Book Critics Circle Dunham. Saint Paul, Minn.: Award for Poetry in 1988. atom by atom to albums Nineties Press and Ally Press, 1985. in Medford and Greenwich, He continues to write and pub- while over the valleys lish as well as to do readings. the still intractable granite He read at the National Book “The poet’s job is to find rears with unseeable peaks Festival in Washington, D.C. in a name for everything; to 2005 and has just published a fatal to airplanes. be a fearless finder of the new book entitled White names of things; to be an Apples and the Taste of advocate for the beauty — Donald Hall Stone: Selected Poems 1946- of language, the subtle- 2006 (New York: Houghton ties of language.” Reprinted with the Mifflin, 2006). – Jane Kenyon permission of the poet.

10 - April 2006 Jane Kenyon 1947-1994 Born May 23, 1947, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Jane Kenyon Mud Season grew up in what was, at the time, a rural part of Ann Arbor. Her father was a jazz pianist who had toured with American dance bands and in later years gave lessons and played in local bars Here in purgatory bare ground and clubs. Her mother was a singer and when her children were is visible, except in shady places born (Jane had an older brother) she began working as a seam- where snow prevails. stress and sewing teacher. Still, each day sees Jane Kenyon attended the University of Michigan where she majored in French and in English, earning a B.A. in 1970 and an the restoration of another animal: M.A. in 1972. While a student at Michigan she met the poet a sparrow, just now a sleepy wasp; Donald Hall, who was a professor there. The two began court- and, at twilight, the skunk ing in 1971 and were married on April 17, 1972. In 1975, Hall pokes out of the den, bought the New Hampshire farm that had belonged to his ma- anxious for mates and meals. . . . ternal grandparents and the couple moved to Eagle Pond Farm where Kenyon would live for the rest of her life. On the floor of the woodshed She had begun writing at an early age and throughout her life the coldest imaginable ooze, she contributed to numerous magazines, including New and soon the first shoots Criterion, New Republic, The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, of asparagus will rise, Harvard Magazine, Pequod, Ploughshares, and Poetry. She also wrote a regular column for the Concord Monitor. She re- the fingers of Lazarus. . . . ceived fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1981), NH Commission on the Arts (1984), and the Earth’s open wounds – where the plow Guggenheim Foundation (1992-3) to support her work. In the gouged the ground last November – mid-1970s she and Joyce Perseroff founded a poetry review, must be smoothed; some sown Green House. They served as editors of the journal and pub- lished the work of many leading American contemporary poets with seed, and all forgotten. in the six issues (1976-1980). Now the nuthatch spurns the suet, Kenyon published four books of her own poetry during her life: resuming its diet of flies, and the mesh From Room to Room (1978), The Boat of Quiet Hours (1986), bag, limp and greasy, might be taken Let Evening Come (1990), and Constance (1993). She also published the translation Twenty Poems of Anna Akhmatova down. (1985) which she worked on with Vera Sandomirsky Dunham. Akhmatova was a favorite of Kenyon, a devoted reader, who Beside the porch step was also drawn especially to the work of Keats, Chekhov, and the crocus prepares an exaltation Bishop. of purple, but for the moment In January 1994, Kenyon was diagnosed with leukemia. She holds its tongue. . . . spent the next sixteen months fighting the disease. During this time she was also working on what would become her fifth col- — Jane Kenyon lection of poetry, Otherwise: New and Selected Poems. Jane Kenyon was chosen as New Hampshire Poet Laureate in 1995. She died only a month later on April 23, 1995. “Mud Season” copyright 2006 Joyce Peseroff and Alice Mattison, whom Donald Hall describes by the Estate of Jane Kenyon. as her “writing friends,” worked with Hall to finalize the selec- Reprinted from Collected tions and editing for Otherwise which was published in 1996. Poems with the permission of In 1999, A Hundred White Daffodils: Essays, Interviews, Graywolf Press, Saint Paul, the Akhmatova Translations, Newspaper Columns, and One Minnesota. Poem was published and Greywolf Press issued her Collected Poems in 2005.

April 2006 - 11 Marie Harris Ms. Harris wrote her first poem, about a toy donkey, when she was Born November 7, 1943, in New In 1971, Ms. Harris moved to Ports- about 9 years old. She has always York City, Marie Harris grew up in mouth, N.H. The following year she identified herself as a writer and a Rye, N.Y. In 1961 she began at and William Matthews divorced. Ms. reader and has been publishing her Georgetown University’s School of Harris now resides in Barrington with work since she was in her 20s. Her Foreign Service. She left two years her husband Charter Weeks. The two writing has appeared in numerous later when she married the poet Wil- married in 1977 and together they journals including Rivendell, Poet liam Matthews. Later Ms. Harris at- own Isinglass Studio, a business-to- Lore, Paragraph, Poetry Miscel- tended the University of North Caro- business advertising firm. The couple lany, Turnstile, Hanging Loose, So- lina and completed her B.A. in En- adopted a teenage son who is the journer, Heaven Bone, and The glish at Goddard College (Vermont) subject of Marie Harris’s most re- Formalist. Marie Harris has pub- in 1971. Harris and Matthews had cent book of poetry: Your Sun, lished four volumes of her poetry and two sons, William and Sebastian. Manny. two children’s books. She has also edited several books, and as a travel writer her articles have appeared in , The Boston New Year, New Hampshire Globe and Corvette Fever.

“How few have ever had anything more of a choice in Ms. Harris has done readings all over government than in climate?” New England. As her listing on the John Adams; Thoughts on Government New Hampshire Council on the Arts’ Artists Roster explains: “Marie Har- ris has presented her work to school- The Hunger Moon draws icy tides upriver, children, college students and senior heaving gray-green slabs of seawater citizens. She has appeared before au- onto the salt marshes. Inland, a house diences ranging from the New rides snow swells into evening Hampshire State Legislature to small while inside the householder, satisfied town meetings, and at conferences on issues ranging from agricultural in the knowledge of a well-provisioned root cellar, sustainability and arts in education to a woodshed stacked with even cords, modern poetry and politics. She has pulls the shutters to, turns from the darkening window. worked as a resident artist in public And still, quarrelsome winds bay down the chimney. and private schools throughout New The urge to retreat to hearth England for over 25 years. Harris is a trained voiceover specialist and she and leatherbound studies of certainty brings drama and humor to her per- is as strong as the pull of the moon; formances.” but there are times when what we may need most In 1999, Governor Shaheen ap- are the rude and raucous disputations pointed Marie Harris to be New Hampshire Poet Laureate. During her that sputter and spark term she organized Poetry & Poli- like bonfires on frozen ponds, tics, which was the first-in-the-na- attracting a quorum of neighbors. tion gathering of the state poets lau- reate. Marie Harris continues to play — Marie Harris an active role in the New Hampshire literary community. Recently the Portsmouth Poet Laureate Program On the occasion of the inauguration of Craig Benson chose her and her husband as final- as the 79th governor of New Hampshire ists in its “Voices and Vision” project. January 9, 2003 Their piece is titled “Working the Piscataqua” and you can see it at Reprinted with the permission of the poet. http://www.marieharris.com.

12 - April 2006 New Hampshire’s Poets Laureate The Work Continued from p. 1 of Marie Harris After Miss Vinton’s death in Septem- standing of her own position in an in- ber 1977, a new poet laureate was terview with the New Hampshire Dear Winter: Poems for the not named until 1979 when Richard Sunday News in April 2003: “I am Solstice. (edited) Thomaston, Eberhart, the Honorary President the public face of poetry in the state Me.: Northwoods Press, 1984. and one of the founders of the PSNH, for now and that means that from my was appointed to a five-year term as point of view, my job is to promote An Ear to the Ground: An New Hampshire’s Poet Laureate. poetry and specifically New Hamp- Anthology of Contemporary Donald Hall followed in 1984, then shire poets.” Asked about constraints . (edited with Maxine Kumin in 1989 and Jane on what she can write, she contin- Kathleen Aguero) Athens: Kenyon in 1994. When Jane Kenyon ued, “I don’t think any poet would University of Georgia Press, died in April 1995, Donald Hall was take the positon knowing that it came 1989. once again appointed as New Hamp- with constraints. That would be just shire Poet Laureate and served until sort of counter to the whole point of G is for Granite: A New March 22, 1999. the role of the artist. The role of the artist is to be a gadfly, to interpret the Hampshire Alphabet. illustrated In 1999 the position of New Hamp- world as they see it, to speak out if by Karen Busch Holman. shire Poet Laureate was once again they choose and how they choose.” Chelsea, Mich.: Sleeping Bear the focus of controversy when Gov- Press, 2002. ernor Jeanne Shaheen appointed On January 21, 2004, Cynthia Hun- Marie Harris of Barrington without tington was approved by the Gover- A Gift of Tongues: Critical the approval of the Poetry Society nor and Council as the state’s eighth Challenges in Contemporary of New Hampshire. As New Hamp- poet laureate. She had been nomi- American Poetry. (edited with shire Poet Laureate, however, Har- nated by the Poetry Society of New Kathleen Aguero) Athens: ris brought together not only the po- Hampshire and was appointed by University of Georgia Press, ets of the Granite State, but those of Governor Craig Benson. In an inter- 1987. the entire nation. What began as view with The Hippo Press in 2004 Harris’s search for a suitable job de- Ms. Huntington described the posi- Interstate. Pittsburgh, Pa.: scription for a state’s poet laureate tion: “… I also think that just being a became Poetry and Politics – the writer and staying with that and tak- Slow Loris Press, 1980. first-ever gathering of poets laureate ing it into everything I do is part of from across the . Har- being Poet Laureate. It’s not an out- Primary Numbers: A New ris worked with the New Hampshire reach mission, but an honor to po- Hampshire Number Book. Il- Writers’ Project, the NH Council on etry in general, that one person at a lustrated by Karen Busch the Arts, the Commissioner of Cul- time gets to represent.” In 2006, fol- Holman. Chelsea, Mich.: Sleep- tural Resources, and the Governor’s lowing the lead of , Ms. ing Bear Press, 2004. office to create a two-day event in Huntington left this “most restful April 2003 including free poetry state” and at present is living in Ver- Raw Honey. Cambridge, Mass.: readings by state poets laureate held mont. Consequently she resigned her Alice James Books, 1975. all over the state; a full-day confer- post. ence on the role of poetry in society; Weasel in the Turkey Pen. and a gala dinner with keynote Following the recommendation of the PSNH, Governor John Lynch ap- Brooklyn, N.Y.: Hanging Loose speaker Dana Gioia, then recently appointed as Chairman of the Na- pointed Patricia Fargnoli of Walpole Press, 1993. tional Endowment for the Arts. At the to complete Ms. Huntington’s term, time there were thirty states that had which ends in March 2009. The Your Sun, Manny: A Prose poets laureate, and most of them at- nomination was approved by the Poem Memoir. Minneapolis, tended the event. Governor and Council on December Minn.: New River Press, 1999. 21, 2005. Ms. Fargnoli has indicated The ‘job description’ for the poet lau- that she is interested in using her po- reate varies from state to state, and sition to introduce poetry to more Marie Harris explained her under- people, both children and adults.

April 2006 - 13 Granite State Cynthia Huntington Readers Born in western Pennsylvania in She began teaching at Dartmouth Recommend 1952, Cynthia Huntington, like sev- College in 1989 and is Director of Poetry eral of New Hampshire’s Poets Creative Writing and Professor of Laureate, came to the Granite State English there. She also teaches in the by way of the University of Michi- MFA in Writing program at Vermont Please check out the complete gan. She began writing poems when list of Granite State readers’ rec- College in Montpelier. She has been she was in her 20s and began sliding a trustee of the New Hampshire ommendations and tell us about poems under the door of Professor a book that you would recom- Writers’ Project and has worked Donald Hall, whom she met at the with the New Hampshire Humani- mend by visiting www.nh.gov/ University. It was the beginning of nhsl/bookcenter/programs ties Council, the Arts Alliance of what Huntington has called a Northern New Hampshire, and the “15- year tutorial,” which she cred- Frost Place in Franconia. She has re- Concord, NH its with having taught her much of ceived fellowships from, among oth- Don Kimball what she knows about writing. ers, the MacDowell Colony, the Poet / Retired family therapist N.H. State Council on the Rebel Angels: 25 Poets of the New For- malism, edited by Mark Jarman and Arts, and the National En- David Mason. Still the best anthology of White Roses dowment for the Arts. Hun- contemporary poets who use meter and tington was appointed rhyme. David Mason’s The Poetry of Life New Hampshire Poet Lau- and the Life of Poetry. The most delight- White roses in fog, reate in 2004. ful yet insightful book of essays on po- etry I’ve ever read! I am awed by way whiter than fog, spun in air, this poet blends feeling and thoughtful- open clear on dark green Cynthia Huntington has ness in what he writes; the deep human branches below, unmoving, published three books of insights found in his essays as well as poems and one memoir: his poetry. clutching the hillside The Fish Wife (University at the edge of the world. of Hawaii Press, 1986), We Manchester, NH Have Gone to the Beach Mary Russell Librarian, NHSL The air is numbed (Alice James Books, The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Prac- in reflections of vapor. 1996), The Radiant (Four tical Advice for Beginning Poets (Univ. Way Books, 2003), and of Nebraska Press, 2005), by . Only the wind is blowing, The Salt House: A Sum- The intended audience for this book is no sound of surf below the hill. mer on the Dunes of Cape people who write poetry, but as a reader of poetry I found it very interesting and Even the sea is invisible. Cod (University Press of it showed me several new ways of look- We are not under the sky, New England, 2003). Her ing at poems. If you want to know more poetry has also been pub- about what goes into the creation of a lished in numerous journals poem and how that relates to ham cubes, we are not risen, including Ploughshares, this is the book you want to read. heaven has not come down. TriQuarterly, and The Walpole, NH Just this blurring of worlds Harvard Review. Patricia Fargnoli in dense light, these white roses NH Poet Laureate so still, they turn Until recently Huntington White Sea (Sarabande Books, 2005), lived in Hanover with her by Cleopatra Mathis. This stunning 40 and look into themselves. son. In August 2006, she poem book by one of New Hampshire’s moved to Thetford, Ver- best poets swings from poems rich with the landscapes of the poet’s southern — Cynthia Huntington mont, coincidentally the childhood to those rich with home of Vermont’s state oceanscapes of outer Cape Cod. Fiercely poet, Grace Paley, and re- beautiful and often elegiac, what I like From The Radiant. Copyright (c) 2003 Cynthia Huntington. signed her position as N.H. best about them is the way they dare to Poet Laureate. Huntington explore the meaning and location of the By permission of Four Way Books. soul even in the face of the mortality of All rights reserved. continues to teach at the body. This is one of the two best Dartmouth and is working books of poems I’ve read in the last year. on a new book.

14 - April 2006 Patricia Fargnoli Patricia Fargnoli, the current New Schooner, The Laurel Review, The career as a clinical social worker and Hampshire Poet Laureate, is the au- Indiana Review, Poetry Northwest psychologist to devote her time to thor of Duties of the Spirit, which and The Mid-American Review. teaching and writing poetry. That was the 2005 winner of the Jane same year she was awarded a fel- Kenyon Poetry Book Award; Nec- Ms. Fargnoli holds a B.A. from Trin- lowship at the MacDowell Colony, essary Light, which won the 1999 ity College in Hartford, Conn. and a and is a frequent resident at The May Swenson Book Award; and Master of Social Work from the Uni- Dorset Colony in Dorset, Vermont. Small Songs of Pain. She has also versity of Connecticut. She moved She was on the faculty of The Frost published two chapbooks of poetry. to New Hampshire from Windsor, Place Poetry Festival, and has taught Conn. after her three children were at The Keene Institute of Music and A member of The New Hampshire grown and has now lived here for Related Arts and the New Hamp- Council on the Arts Touring Roster, over a decade. Initially settling in shire Institute of Art, where she was she’s read her work throughout New Keene, Ms. Fargnoli now resides in awarded an honorary B.F.A. She England and has published poems Walpole. has taught for several years in the in numerous journals including Lifelong Learning Program of Keene Poetry, Ploughshares, Prairie In 1998, Ms. Fargnoli retired from a State College.

The NH Center for the Book wishes to thank everyone who The Undeniable Pressure of Existence helped to make this Poets Laureate project possible! I saw the fox running by the side of the road past the turned-away brick faces of the condominiums Andrea Thorpe past the Citgo gas station with its line of cars and trucks Concord Public Library and he ran, limping, gaunt, matted dull haired Concord Monitor past Jim’s Pizza, past the Wash-O-Mat Donald Hall past the Thai Garden, his sides heaving like bellows Dartmouth College and he kept running to where the interstate Four Way Books Manchester City Library crossed the state road and he reached it and ran on Marie Harris under the underpass and beyond it past the perfect Maxine Kumin rows of split-levels, their identical driveways NHSL staff, especially: their brookless and forestless yards, Frank Boucher and from my moving car, I watched him, Nancy Christiano helpless to do anything to help him, certain he was beyond Debra DeCota any aid, any desire to save him, and he ran loping on, David Harris far out of his element, sick, panting, starving, Ann Hoey his eyes fixed on some point ahead of him, Clint Jackson Linda Jayes some possible salvation Lynn Langevin in all this hopelessness, that only he could see. Charles Le Blanc Jane Lyman — Patricia Fargnoli Ruby Mattot Alice Nye Charles Shipman From Duties of the Spirit published by Tupelo Press. Jill Witham Copyright 2005 by Patricia Fargnoli. All rights reserved. Poetry Society of NH Reproduced by permission of Tupelo Press. Todd Russell Tupelo Press

April 2006 - 15 Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library 20 Park Street Concord, NH 03301

The mission of the Center for the Book at the NH State Library is to celebrate and promote reading, books, literacy, and the literary heritage of New Hampshire and to highlight the role that reading and libraries play in enriching the lives of the people of the Granite State.

The NH Center for the Book Authors’ Room

Part of the mission of the Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library is “to celebrate and promote . . . the literary heritage of New Hampshire” and with that in mind we have established the New Hampshire Center for the Book Authors’ Room at the New Hampshire State Library in Concord.

According to State Librarian Michael York, “the New Hampshire Authors’ Room is a special place in the State Library dedicated to New Hampshire’s writers. Its purpose is to highlight the accomplishments of New Hampshire writers, and it is our hope that they will feel welcome here and that they will use our resources about New Hampshire.”

Currently, the Authors’ Room features a display on the works of the Granite State’s nine poets laureate including images of each poet, a display of their books, sample poems, and binders of resource materials on each of them. The Center for the Book plans to have a couple of different displays in the room each year that focus on some specific aspect of New Hampshire’s literary heritage. It might be work of a particular type, such as novels or biography; work by a particular group of writers, like the poets laureate; or writings on a specific topic, like the Old Man of the Mountain.

When asked for her thoughts on the new space, Barbara Yoder, Executive Director of the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, said: “the Authors’ Room has a warm, wonderful feeling with photos of our poets laureate, beautiful book display cases, and comfortable chairs. It is a stunning, light-filled room and a great place to read books by New Hampshire authors.”

The Poetry Society of New Hampshire held a reading at the State Library on April 15, 2006, and they offered light refreshments following the reading in the Authors’ Room. We hope that this will be the first of many literary gatherings in this space.

16 - April 2006