New England History
When I saw those piles of yellowed, handwritten pages in my great-grandmother’s attic in Fryeburg, Maine, I was baffled. What did
A is for the well known Albion P
Who thinks its rather nice a County Officer to be
have to do with
Woman! What magic is contained in that one word; what heaving breast what tumultuous mind–what cankering care–cannot her art dispel?
or with
Tis true I went a logging, as the people say,
And had a very pleasant time a working day by day…?
Turns out, these farmers’ literary creations led me to discover a forgotten – and delightful – chapter of life all over northern New England for most of the 19th century! My book, Wit and Wisdom: The Forgotten Literary Life of New England Villages (UMass Press, 2023) tells the story of how our rural ancestors spent their winters playfully improving their minds.
You can order Wit and Wisdom on bookshop.org or on amazon.com. Or you can book me for a talk about any aspect of this tradition – and I’ll bring books with me.
“In Radner’s hands, the newspapers bring these villages to life, revealing their inhabitants’ values, literacy, humor, hopes, fears, and much more. Radner skillfully draws on her extensive research and her informed historical imagination to bring the reader into the lyceum, where the audience clapped, whistled, and stomped its feet.”
Professor Joseph A. Conforti, University of Southern Maine
Jo Radner 