These two towns at the heart of the Connecticut River Valley have been appreciated by poets and artists for many years, and their bucolic and pastoral character is celebrated in this marvelous new examination of the towns’ history in photographs from 1860 through the early twentieth century. Famous residents of and visitors to the area are featured, including Dickinson, Robert Frost, Henry Ward Beecher and Noah Webster. Mr. Lombardo’s book combines a serious look at these historical figures with a humorous perspective on some of the area’s more colorful characters, such as Charles King, the Amherst barber who became famous for eating fifty eggs in fifteen minutes.
Background Information
Massachusetts had some of the earliest English colonies in America and was central to the American Revolution. The Connecticut River flows south through New England, dividing Vermont and New Hampshire before flowing into Long Island Sound. Henry Ward Beecher was a Congregationalist minister, a leading abolitionist, and the brother of author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Noah Webster was an advocate of American education and the author of the first dictionary of American English.