A Memory of Vermont: Our Life in the Johnny Appleseed Bookshop

by Margaret Hard

First edition, later printing With information on Robert Frost. Jacket rubbed with tears and covers stained. Bookplate on free endpaper. xii, 242 pages. cloth, dust jacket.. 8vo..

270 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 1967

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

A memoir about running a bookshop in the mountains of Vermont from 1930 to 1965. Margaret Hard was probably a lovely person, and if I ever find myself traveling back in time to mid 20th century Manchester, VT, I will most definitely visit her bookshop. That said, she really doesn't seem to grasp how to write a coherent book. I got impatient with the random scraps of writing (poems, newspaper articles, stories written to amuse friends and neighbors etc.) inserted throughout as filler.

[Jim Deak · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a difficult book to review. I enjoyed it, though it's not for everyone. It may not hold your interest, if you aren't interested in Manchester, Vermont (one of the more common threads). I liked it for the bookstore and bookselling descriptions, character sketches of various writers and literary figures she knew and her family's life in general as writers and bookshop owners.

The main problem is that there isn't enough of any single subject. As it mentions in the introduction, it will not give you many bookselling tips or business ideas. It will give you sketches of some local writers --Robert Frost being the most famous --with the author being most familiar with Dorothy Canfield / Dorothy Canfield Fisher and Sarah Cleghorn. Also, her husband Walter Hard, was a well-known regional poet of the time --championed by Robert Frost. There's sketches of history, some of her poetry, some of Walter Hard's poetry and some of Sarah Cleghorn's poetry included in the book --but again, the sketches of writers probably take up less than a third of the book. There's also a look into Vermont during the Depression and before and after --but again, it's in passing --as is some of the descriptions of political life because, because Walter Hard was elected to the state legislature a number of times.

I first read this book back in 1985, when my local library had very few books on bookstores and bookselling. I have to say that despite its shortcomings, this book was definitely a motivator in becoming a bookseller --probably by her tone --not glossing over the difficulties, but seeming to enjoy her bookselling and literary life (Margaret Hard wrote and co-wrote a number of books), despite its ups and downs.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Along with her husband and children, Mrs. Margaret Hard operated the beloved Johnny Appleseed bookstore in Manchester Vermont from 1930 up until the shop was sold in the mid-1960s. This volume collects her memories along with other anecdotes of living in Vermont in the 20th century. Only about half of this scattershot memoir directly relates to running the bookshop. The other contents include:
• Mrs. Hard's poetry.
• Her husband's poetry.
• The poetry of a dear friend whose forgotten book was published in 1917.
• Passages from the Johnny Appleseed Bookshop newsletter written by her daughter, Ruth.
• Samples of Mrs. Hard's fill-in stint as a newspaper columnist from the 1940s.
• Passages from the childhood diary of Mrs. Hard's father-in-law describing farm life in Civil War-era Vermont.
• A silly bit of short fiction about a weird little girl obsessed with collecting pins.
As you can see, this book was in sore need of a good editor. Despite that, the parts where Mrs. Hard recollects her neighbors and the struggles of running a bookstore in the Depression are quite charming. I liked her optimism and strong sense of ethics. As a person, I imagined her being like one of the classic movie characters played by Spring Byington, a flighty busybody type (coincidentally, both women were the same age, born in 1886).

[Lee Ormasa]

A nice little book full of stories about the Johnny Appleseed Bookshop in Manchester, Vermont, started in 1930, and the community of writers and poets who supported it including Carl Sandburg, Robert Frost, Dorothy Canfield and others. Walter and Margaret Hard and their daughter Ruth ran the store until 1965 when they sold it to the last owner who kept it going until 1994. A look back in time to when reading great literature was a way of life.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful book,America in another time. This book was published a few years after I was born. Easy read and nice for picking up and putting down. Or at bedtime.