LAST HOUSE ON THE ROAD [Paperback]

Ronald Jager (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 1996

Some 30 years ago, the author of Eighty Acres and his wife discovered an abandoned 18th-century farmhouse that later became their home. This collection of rich, lively portraits explores the links between a rural New England landscape and the routines of its inhabitants, now and in the past, and celebrates the age-old process of taking what's old and making it new.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Beyond the abandoned farmhouse, the road petered into woods-just the place the author and his wife, Grace, were seeking. As they reclaimed the 200-year-old house in Washington, N.H., they felt a continuity with previous owners who had lived and farmed there. Here Jager (Eighty Acres: Elegy for a Family Farm) explores the landscape and the New England rural past. He restores the original hearthstone of his house, which was removed during late-19th century "improvements." He moves from past to present, with portraits of daily life in the town-a church fair, town meeting, presidential primary, deer hunting-and captures the essence of New England small-town life. Some chapters were originally published in Harper's, the New York Times, Country Life and other journals.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Jager (Eighty Acres, Beacon, 1992) and his wife dreamed of finding an abandoned house and bringing it back to life. They found the answer to that dream in a late 18th-century farm house located at the "end of the road" in Washington, New Hampshire. When the Jagers purchased it in the 1960s, they became only the third family to reside there. Jager, a former professor of philosophy at Yale, writes about the history of the house and his growing feelings of connection with its past residents, the surrounding woods, and the citizens of Washington over the last 25 years. His philosophy background and interest in history is evident in his musings about such things as the original well in the house's cellar, the role of democracy in Washington's annual town meetings, and the relationship between humans and nature as reflected in his experiences with the house and surrounding countryside. A thoughtful book for general readers.
Linda McEwan, Elgin Community Coll., Ill.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 263 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (November 30, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807070637
• ISBN-13: 978-0807070635
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #718,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mr. Jager perfectly captures the rhythm of this small town., June 9, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Last House on the Road: Excursions into a Rural Past (The Concord Library) (Hardcover)

Ron Jager has used his considerable store of dry wit and keen sense of observation to create a book that wonderfully portrays life in a small New Hampshire town. His book is consistently entertaining, whether meditating on nature as observed near his pond or contemplating the ups and downs of life in a town that still practices the most basic form of participatory democracy - the annual town meeting. Mr. Jagers rural life does not begin in New Hampshire however. He also gives us glimpses of his own boyhood in the midwest; a background that makes him uniquely qualified to write about rural life in a very different part of the United States. Clearly the people that appear in this book are not just subjects but neighbors and friends and his affection for them and for his "last house on the road" come shining through.