Seasoned Timber - Softcover

Fisher, Dorothy Canfield

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0874517532 ISBN 13: 9780874517538

Publisher: Univ Pr of New England, 1996

Synopsis

"Nobody values anything for its endurance nowadays," T. C. Hulme, headmaster of the Clifford, Vermont Academy muses. Long devoted to the school and to his eccentric aunt, T. C. is increasingly aware that life is passing him by. His hopes are renewed when he falls in love with a new teacher 20 years his junior. But as Dorothy Canfield Fisher shows, neither love nor Academy life runs smooth.

A younger suitor steps in, and a rich, out-of-state trustee dies and leaves the Academy a million-dollar "gift" in his will. The codicils are troubling, however: Jews must be excluded, girls ousted, and local students squeezed out by a tuition hike. The affront to a Yankee sense of fair play is clear, but the school desperately needs funds. Thus T. C. and the town confront a struggle between the "old" virtues of tolerance, integrity, and civic responsibility and "modern" attitudes of expediency, exclusionism, and outside control.

Originally published in 1939, Fisher's last novel is remarkably prescient in its defense of human rights and the ramifications of their denial.

About this title

About the Author

Named by Eleanor Roosevelt as one of the ten most influential women in the US, Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879 - 1958) brought the Montessori Method of child-rearing to America, presided over the country's first adult education program, and influenced American literary tastes as a member of the Book-of-the-Month Club selection committee from 1926 to 1951. A committed educational reformer and social activist, the popular Arlington, VT writer produced 22 works of fiction and 18 nonfiction books on a wide range of subjects.

Mark J. Madigan, who provides an introduction, teaches English at the University of Vermont and is editor of Fisher's The Bedquilt and Other Stories (1995) and Keeping Fires Night and Day: Selected Letters of Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1993).

Reviews

In addition to being a respected author, Fisher was also an educational reformer, a social activist, and for 25 years a member of the Book-of-the-Month Club selection committee. First published in 1939, this was the last novel Fisher wrote about her native Vermont. It follows the difficulties faced by Clifford Academy headmaster T.C. Hulme after the academy is willed $1 million with the stipulation that Jews, girls, and locals must be squeezed out.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ Pr of New England
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0874517532
• ISBN 13: 9780874517538
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 513
• Editor: Madigan Mark J.