This American River: Five Centuries of Writing About the Connecticut

by W.D. Wetherell (Editor)

A written portrait of one of the nation's most important rivers features writing about the river that spans five hundred years and includes contributions by Henry David Thoreau, Charles Dickins, Mark Twain, Wallace Stevens, and others. (Literature)

Hardcover

First published September 1, 2002

About the author

Walter D. Wetherell is the author of eleven previous works of fiction and nonfiction. He has received two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, two O. Henry Awards, the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, and, most recently, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Strauss Living Award. He lives in Lyme, New Hampshire, with his wife and two children. His latest novel is A Century of November.

Reviews

[Moriah Keat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up on the New Hampshire side of the river, moved away, and recently moved to the Vermont side of the river. This was the first book I borrowed from the library and I felt it helped connect me to this place. I learned so much about the place I grew up and the place I inhabit now. I never knew so many had written so much about the Connecticut River!

[Chris]

I loved reading this book, an anthology of writings about the largest river in New England, the river that runs past my home for the past 24 years, that follows the highway we ride north and south away from home.
I especially enjoyed, of course, any references to Brattleboro, where I most frequently view the Connecticut. I loved reading about the log drives, early attempts to navigate and sail the river, and about "Lake Hitchcock" the glacial lake that, over time, shriveled down to the Connecticut River, its tributaries, and a pond or two (I had to look up this Lake Hitchcock, seeing it referenced a number of times in the readings of "This American River", but never explained). Reading about the varves, and sedimental layers left by the receding waters made me want to go exploring, as did the accounts of finding the source of the river in the Fourth Connecticut Lake, "just this side" of the Canadian border.
Some of the accounts of early settlers are hard to read because of intense prejudice toward the native people and the French, who were competing with the English for conquest.
W.D. Wetherell's two pieces were okay, but it was hard to shake the idea that they were only included because, well, he is the editor of the volume.