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More an historical narrative and portrait-driven
wonder on the counterculture streamlined
back-to-the-land movement once upon a time in Vermont.
The tribes arrived when gasoline cost 20 cents (I remember)
a gallon, and land was cheap, and some of the
ragamuffins were filthy rich, others had strong backs,
a mighty handful persist to this day. Not quite
the seminal text on the subject as Robert Houriet's
Getting Back Together, written in real-time
and it felt it; Daley digs in deeply to the
Green Mountain state decades after its
zenith dream-time and finds many of
the key locations, people, and she
cherishes the heart that came with it.
A wiser proof reader should have been hired:
it has never been "Woodie" Guthrie (and
never will be), and "Further" was certainly
not cosmopolitan author Tom Wolfe's
prankster bus, but Oregon's own
Ken Kesey's.
Veteran commune photographer Peter Simon's
work graces the front cover of this
handsome book.
The resonant message: thousands came
and an uncountable stayed and made a viable community —
one outlier became mayor, congessman, then senator,
and almost the president.
The resonant message: thousands came
and an uncountable stayed and made a viable community —
one outlier became mayor, congessman, then senator,
and almost the president.
[ BA ]
University Press of New England
2018
