Last Person Rural

by Noel Perrin, Michael McCurdy (Illustrator)

Essays discuss rural life, county fairs, stone walls, acid rain, mulching, barns, ponds, pollution, and progress

199 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1991

About the author

Noel Perrin was a professor of English literature, an essayist for the Washington Post, a hobbyist farmer, and a Korean War veteran.

Reviews

[Desmond Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you haven't read any of Noel Perrin's books, you have a lot to look forward to. I encountered his stories of rural life in Vermont more than thirty years ago, when I lived in the deep South and had never been anywhere close to the rural New England he described. Even then it was not hard to see the poetry that he saw and wrote about in the New England landscape, and feel the wonder he felt in the beauty of life on a small farm in a rural village. First Person Rural, Second Person Rural, and Third Person Rural were eventually followed by Last Person Rural which somehow I missed before now. This volume has a lot to say about the environment and small farming, and a lot about the benefits of living the small, aware life. Pure joy. If you enjoy these books by Noel Perrin, also look up A Reader's Delight and A Child's Delight, about some of his favorite less-known works of literature for adults and children.

[Avis Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perrin was the best American essay writer of his generation.

[Howard Raymond · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's different. A city school teacher describes his adventures of playing farmer. As a agriculturalist who has made husbandry his life vocation, I can't agree with all of the author's assessments. And the last couple chapters I had to skip over. I just can't seem to agree to the principle that all progress is bad.