Willa Cather was a young, unproven author from the plains of Nebraska when a close friend and fellow writer, Sarah Orne Jewett, told her she needed to find a place in which to contemplate and write.
So in the summer of 1917, Cather arrived at the Shattuck Inn in Jaffrey with little more than a pen, paper and the surrounding mountains and farmland from which to draw inspiration. She’d set up a tent in a nearby field and each summer over the next two-plus decades, surrounded by a soft breeze and the scent of lilacs, return to author some of the nation’s finest works about the American immigrant experience, including “My Antonia” and “Death Comes to the Archbishop.” Another book, “One of Ours,” would be inspired by the WWI diary of a local doctor named Frederick Sweeney.
Today, the Shattuck Inn is no longer, but Cather’s works have endured, as has New Hampshire’s legacy as a wellspring of some of America’s most beautiful and memorable writing.
“It’s something in the water…and in the mountains and the beaches and the foliage,” says Mary Russell, director of the Center for the Book at the NH State Library. “The beauty up here is so inspiring for artists and writers. I think part of it is that we are not a hurry-up kind of a place, but a sit-by-the-lake-and-watch-the-loons kind of a place where writers can just enjoy their surroundings without the pressures of the outside world.
“For Willa Cather,” she continues, “Jaffrey proved to be a place where she could reflect and create, and it has proven to be the case around the state with so many other authors.”
From “Little Women” scribe Louisa May Alcott’s “Under the Lilacs” (1878), inspired by her summers in Walpole and the abundance there of the lavender blossom, to countless Robert Frost poems stirred by the landscapes, forests and stonewalls of Franconia and beyond, the list of world-class writers who’ve made New Hampshire their home is as historic as it is varied.
It is a list – and tradition – that shows little sign of ceasing, at least if the young authors featured on these pages have something to say about it. This issue marks the culmination of the NH Troubadour’s fourth grade poetry challenge. Each month, the Troubadour reaches more than 15,000 fourth graders across the state in conjunction with the NH history curriculum. Dozens of classes took part in the challenge, chronicling what makes their home state and communities special to them. The quality and originality of entries was first-rate. It also wasn’t surprising.
“This is a state that has traditionally placed great value in reading and literacy,” says Prof. David Watters, director of UNH’s Center for New England Culture. “You go from town to town, and the libraries in each of them are amazing. So are the teachers. They are the ones nurturing those writing skills. As a professor, I see students from around the state coming in each year who are well-read and can write surprisingly well. At the heart of it is the fact that behind each of these kids are great teachers and great families.”
And some great role models. Chalk it up to the Granite State’s trademark independent spirit, its lush landscapes, distinct seasons and opportunities for solitude, or its tradition of small-town friendliness and transparency, New Hampshire’s cast of literary legends – and rich subject matter – has always dwarfed the state’s limited geography.
From Celia Thaxter’s Seacoast poetry inspired by life along the Isles of Shoals, to ee cummings’ poem, “i am a little church,” based on the Madison Community Church near his Silver Lake summer farm, the state’s abundant nature and understated beauty have always stirred writers’ hearts and imaginations.
As have its people. Thornton Wilder’s enduring classic “Our Town” was inspired by his 1937 stay at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough and his talks with locals in surrounding villages about personal stories and tragedies; while Grace Metalius, in writing her 1956 melodrama “Peyton Place,” drew from real life characters she met in Gilford, Gilmanton, Laconia and Gilmanton Iron Works.
“New Hampshire is one of those places that has always had a little of everything for writers,” says Kathy Wurtz, director of the NH Writers Project in Manchester. “It’s in the communities; it’s in the history; it’s in the sheer landscapes and the independent mindset. It really seems to epitomize in every way the America our founding fathers had envisioned. Writers tend to have an independent, outside-the-box streak. I think this environment only helps to inspire and nurture that creativity.”
If the poetry featured on these pages from these talented fourth graders is any indication, that creativity will continue to develop for a long time to come.
Special thanks to the Center for the Book at the NH State Library, the NH Writers Project, Prof. David Watters for their assistance and generosity with this story.
