AUTHOR OF A LIFETIME OF VERMONT PEOPLE ANSWERS A REVIEW

A review of my book, A Lifetime of Vermont People, was recently published in the winter/spring issue of Vermont History (volume 82,No. 1). It is the last article in the journal and begins on page 85. Tom Slayton wrote it. He is Editor Emeritus (that means he is retired with honor) from the state magazine Vermont Life. Tom spent 22 years working as editor and publisher of the magazine. He was a fair-minded editor and did much good for Vermont Life. Tom learned how to tap dance around and with the politicians and bureaucracy of the State of Vermont. He was the one who introduced advertising into Vermont Life and he is perhaps the last editor who maintained the quality magazine subcribers expected —beauty resonating with nostalgia rather than an undercurrent of reality. Now VL is morphing into something peculiar, not always appreciated by readers, and it is not paying for itself.

         The 60 Vermonters who I photographed and profiled in my book grew up in a rural environment and made this state what it is. I write about them all—rednecks, woodchucks, or like me, flatlanders by birth who love Vermont and have become Vermonters.

         Sounds like Tom, writing in the first paragraphs, is suggesting the book is a nostalgic trip to what was known as the last stronghold of the Yankees. Lifetime is not that at all; rather, it is a history book (all non fiction books become so quickly history) and it is about the people of Vermont who work for themselves and are proud of it. It is their words, not mine, that make this beautiful book so important