WHAT THE TREES SAID: Life on a New Age Farm

by Stephen Diamond

Originally published in 1971 by delacorte Press as a Seymour lawrence book, this story has remained a cult classic about communal living at the dawn of the New Age. This new editioin is presented in much the same way as the original in order to preserve the energy, the youthful voice, and the directness and conversational tone. A brief introduction has been added, a list of illustrations, and an afterword.

Two years after the founding of a communal farm in western Massachusetts near he Vermont border, Steve Diamond describes the "magic" that has come to surround the place. A split in the Liberation News Service, an underground press news source, brought a small group of writers to explore what it's like to get "back to the earth" and a freer life-style. Many visitors drift in and out and the commune struggles to deal with decisioins about who belongs, responsibilities, relationships, and untimately the death of Marshall BlooM, the natural leader of the group.

Steve Diamond was 23, had attended Columbia University, edited for Liberation News Service and wrote free-lance magazine articles before turning his hand to milking cows.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Jonathan Kauffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impossible to read this memoir without searching for land in rural New England and asking your friends if they can get you some mescaline. Beautifully written.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

hippy dippy but what are you NOT going to read a book called "what the trees said: life on a new age farm"?? the best part is when the narrator is having visions while tripping on shrooms and keeps seeing native americans having meetings in the forest near the farm. laughable if not for the gravity of what it represents.

[Lisette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just get a job Steve

[Wesley Blixt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, I was wrong. And I am delighted to have been wrong. Diamond book is apparently back in print. I wish Steve had lived to see it. Read it in tandem with Ray Mungo's FAMOUS LONG AGO. This is more about the farm; Mungo's is more about the war.

[Judith · Rating 3 out of 5]

My old hippie friends, in all their glory and sadness.