Center for the Book at the New Hampshire Book Notes State Library Fall 2008 Vol. 4 , Issue 2 New Hampshire Writers’ Project Celebrates Twenty Years By Carla Gericke Wurtz, Executive Director of NHWP, ners,” said Wurtz, “is testament to the Program Manager, NHWP “it was so cold the staff had to wear Seacoast’s dynamic literary commu- This October, the New Hampshire mittens. Things have, fortunately,” she nity. Their dedication and enthusiasm Writers’ Project (NHWP) launches added with a smile, “warmed up in shaping this event are immeasur- its 20th anniversary celebrations by since then.” able. This is what NHWP is about, bringing a three-day literary festival building community, reaching out, to Portsmouth as part of the New sharing the literary arts with others.” Hampshire Writers’ Trail. On Octo- ber 23, 24, and 25, 2008, the Ports- Wurtz said she is particularly proud mouth Literary Festival will showcase to have more than twelve Seacoast the vibrant literary community of New writers involved in the festival. “It Hampshire’s Seacoast region with shows the wealth of writing talent on readings, walking tours, shows, panel the Seacoast, and, with other New discussions, and a few fun new ways Hampshire writers on board as well, to explore the craft of writing. within the whole state.” Portsmouth is the fifth location on the On the evening of Saturday, Octo- New Hampshire Writers’ Trail, a ber 25, the Portsmouth Literary Fes- statewide “literary meander” that tival will culminate with an on-stage highlights the accomplishments of The nonprofit organization has grown interview with visiting novelist Tom writers within a specific New Hamp- to include more than 750 members Perrotta. Perrotta, dubbed “an shire region and brings nationally ac- throughout New Hampshire and the claimed visiting writers to the Gran- surrounding states. NHWP fosters Continues on page 6 ite State. In the past, the New Hamp- writers at all levels of development— shire Writers’ Trail has been to from beginners to Pulitzer Prize win- Wilmot to host the 2006 Kearsarge ners and U.S. Poets Laureate—as INSIDE THIS ISSUE Poetry Festival, to Keene in summer well as readers who appreciate great 2006 to celebrate the work of Ernest writing and books. Now they are NH Books Column 2 Hebert, and to Claremont and ready to celebrate. Thomas Bailey Aldrich 3 Laconia in 2005, to explore the lit- Letters About Literature 4 eral and fictional worlds of Sarah NHWP, working with community Peterborough Town Library 5 Josepha Hale and Ruth Doan partners such as Strawbery Banke, Celebrating Kalevala 7 Antiquarian Book Fair Coupon 7 McDougall. This year, the Trail trav- South Church, The Music Hall, els to Portsmouth, the town where Award Notes 8 RiverRun Bookstore, the Portsmouth The Big Read: Fitzgerald 9 NHWP began. Athenaeum, Seacoast Repertory Join the NH Center for the Book 9 Theatre, the Press Room, and the Poetry Place 10 In 1988, the New Hampshire Writ- Wire, will present three days of jam- The Big Read: Twain 11 ers’ Project started in the Button Fac- packed excitement. Reader Recommendations 11 tory on Islington Street in Ports- National Book Festival 12 mouth. “In the winter,” said Kathy “The involvement of our local part- Fall 2008 - 1 Center for the Book New Hampshire Books at the By Donna Gilbreth New Hampshire State Library I was curious to explore the con- tinuing appeal of a New Hampshire Mary A. Russell, Director novel that seemed like a bit of fluff. 603-271-2866 Why are people (mostly women) still excited about The Cheerleader by [email protected] Ruth Doan MacDougall after more than 30 years? Excited enough that the author has written three more novels in the series about a small-town high school cheerleader? So, I read the novel and was swept into a time 2008 Advisory Board and lifestyle long departed. Chair The Cheerleader is a coming-of-age novel about a perky and bright Andrea Thorpe NH Library Association teenager named Henrietta “Snowy” Snow. We first meet her as a sopho- more at Gunthwaite High School in 1956. The story chronicles the events Vice-Chair and emotions experienced by Snowy and her friends as they progress Becky Albert towards graduation – marking many “milestones” along the way. Snowy’s NH Educational Media Association list of goals is formidable: she wants to be a varsity cheerleader, she wants to snag football player Tom Forbes as her boyfriend, and she wants Van McLeod to go to an elite women’s college after graduation. Her desire to succeed NH Dept. of Cultural Resources is strong: “She wanted to be one of those fabulous varsity cheerleaders cheering at a game that mattered, for the boys who mattered, the crowd Dr. Lyonel B. Tracy caring passionately, and she herself one of those who led them.” To high NH Dept. of Education school students these things matter enormously, desires we dismiss as Michael York trivial as we age and encounter all the issues of adulthood. New Hampshire State Library Snowy was a typical teenager of the 1950’s, striving to conform to her Kathy Wurtz image of a popular girl, but she was also working toward the unusual goal New Hampshire Writers Project of going to college and having a career. As a sophomore her image was all-important: “Snowy strove to conform, to wear the same clothes as the Patricia Fargnoli popular girls, to wear her hair fashionably, to carry her books and speak Poet Laureate of New Hampshire the slang and know the hit songs all absolutely correctly.” Yet her under- lying ambition to obtain a scholarship to Smith or Mt. Holyoke College Rick Agran set her apart from the other girls, who were mostly just trying to get NH Humanities Council engaged to be married. Carrie Thomas Colby-Sawyer College Much of the novel concerns the agonizing interactions between boyfriends and girlfriends, and the effect on friendships. An overwhelming concern Maureen Graham, CHILIS for girls then was how far to go on a date, whether (or when) to allow your boyfriend to Get Fresh, as Snowy and her friends referred to it, or Sally Jones actually reach the Big Milestone of sexual intercourse. There were “rules” NH Library Trustees Association for these relationships: “then, horrified, she realized she was letting him Get Fresh on their third evening together, and you weren’t supposed to Pat Frisella until you were going steady.” Sexual mores of the 1950’s are very much Poetry Society of New Hampshire part of the novel, from dates at soda shops or movie theaters to the popular “parking” destinations. All of this sexual experimentation takes Michelle Sampson place while the seemingly clueless parents are at home in bed. Urban Public Library Consortium Willard Williams MacDougall captures the flavor of the 1950’s in a small town perfectly, Toadstool Bookshops right down to the songs being played at school dances or on the car radio while the kids are “parking.” She meticulously describes the wardrobes Eleanor Strang of the girls, knowing that being dressed just right was very important in Continues on page 7 New Hampshire’s Literary Treasures Thomas Bailey Aldrich by Mary A. Russell Taft Aldrich and Sarah Abba Bailey of the Potomac in Virginia. His hor- Aldrich, both of whom were de- rific wartime experiences would in- In The Story of a Bad Boy, Thomas scended from Colonial New Eng- fluence his later writings. In 1862 he Bailey Aldrich begins his tale by de- land families. The family moved to left Virginia and returned to Ports- scribing his hero, which he based New York when Thomas was five mouth. Over the next several years upon himself: and then to New Orleans in 1846. he wrote and published poetry and “I may truthfully say I was an amiable, In 1849 Thomas returned to Ports- short stories, served as managing impulsive lad, blessed with fine diges- mouth to attend the school of Samuel editor of the Illustrated News, and tive powers, and no hypocrite. I did not want to be an angel and with the angels De Merritt in preparation for attend- divided his time between New York, stand; I did not think the missionary ing Harvard, where he planned to Boston, and Portsmouth. On No- tracts presented to me by the Rev. Wibird study under Longfellow. That same vember 28, 1865 Aldrich married Hawkins were half so nice as Robinson year Elias Aldrich died of cholera, Lillian Woodman – whom he met Crusoe; and I failed to send my little leaving his family in limited financial through the Booths – and the couple pocket-money to the natives of the Feejee circumstances and making Harvard moved to Boston. This suited Aldrich, Islands, but spent it royally in pepper- mint-drops and taffy candy. In short, I an impossibility for Thomas. who said, “Though I am not genuine was a real human boy, such as you may Boston, I am Boston-plated.” meet anywhere in New England” (1914 When he was sixteen, Thomas Riverside Press edition, p. 4) Aldrich had his first published poem In September 1868, just before the in the Portsmouth Journal. In 1852 birth of his twin sons, Aldrich finished Aldrich’s creation of a novel for young he took a job in the New York City The Story of a Bad Boy, which he people about a real boy, as opposed commission house of his uncle, had begun while visiting Portsmouth to the idealized version of boyhood Charles Frost. By this time Aldrich’s – the Rivermouth of the book — perfection typical of literature at the poems had appeared in various pe- where he typically spent his summers.