New Hampshire
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By Elizabeth H. Juster
National attention is directed our way every four years as the presidential primary shifts into high gear. The national press jockeys for just the right "picture postcard" backdrop for their newscasts. Too often this presents the "stereotypical" view of New Hampshire -apple orchards, stone fences, mountains and a kindly old gentleman in plaid. While those scenes do exist, there is much more to New Hampshire than the world that Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" or Thornton Wilder's play Our Town would suggest.
The New Hampshire State Library's listing of New Hampshire Authors includes in its list writers who were born in New Hampshire as well as writers who "summered in the state or lived here for several years." The wide variety of writers and genres represented in this list creates a more accurate depiction of New Hampshire – one that includes our modern day voices and visions as well as our beloved apple orchards and snowy peaks.
The bookshelf of New Hampshire writers includes, in addition to Frost, well-known names like:
J.D. Salinger, E.E. Cummings, John Cheever, Lois Lowry, Robin Cook and John Irving. Some surprises were: Willa Cather (buried in Jaffrey, New Hampshire), Horace Greely (yes, the one from history class), Tomie DePaola (author of great children's books like Strega Nona) Margret and Hans Rey (co-authors of the Curious George books) and Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss himself attended Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire).No New Hampshire writer's bookshelf would be complete without the work of Donald Murray – a true writer's writer. Murray is one of the authors whose work on the writing process attracts teachers from all over the United States to the University of New Hampshire's Summer Writing Program. This program gives teachers the opportunity to learn how to teach writing by fully engaging in the writing process and becoming writers themselves.
Place the works of Charles Simic, Jane Kenyon, Donald Hall and Mekeel McBride, to name a few, on the bookshelf and balance the prose of New Hampshire writers with their poetry. And if you're ready for a laugh, add to the bookshelf the work of P.J. O'Rourke and Richard Lederer.
When the next primary rolls around in 2004 and the network cameras pan across a snowy winter wonderland prompting you to reach for Robert Frost, get the "full picture" of New Hampshire and pick up a work by one of our other authors along with your well-worn copy of Frost's "Mending Wall".
Elizabeth Juster is an English teacher at Londonderry High School in New Hampshire.