HOUSATONIC: WRITERS AND ARTISTS OF THE HOUSATONIC RIVER VALLEY FROM JONATHAN EDWARDS TO THE PRESENT

Booklet measuring 8.5 x 11", stapled spine, 35 (5) sponsored by the HVA (Housatonic Valley Association), the non-profit, environmental organization, that advocates for land and water policies for the Housatonic River watershed that flows from just north of Pittsfield MA in the Berkshires to the Long Island Sound , traversing Litchfield County CT. The booklet was a program for an environmental fair sponsored by the HVA on August 19, 1972 - in the hayday of the ecology movement of the 70s. The booklet includes contemplations about nature and the region from 19thC authors who lived in the region like Herman Melville and Nathanial Hawthorne, plus writings of contemporary authors from the area, including an original letter from Arthur Miller who lived in Roxbury CT. Noteworthy is a reproduction of the manuscript page of a David Brubeck musical composition to a poem by Mark Van Doren, who lived in Cornwall, CT. Most unique is cover art by Alexander Calder, who lived in Roxbury. It is dated 1971, and clearly created by him for this cause; it doesn't appear in the Calder catalogue raisonne nor does Miller's letter in his bibliography. Scarce.