Green Mountain Stories
Green Mountain Stories
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (Author); Brent Kendrick (Editor)
Think about it for a moment. What if a book had been published under a title that was not the one the author and her editor had agreed upon? Would it have mattered? Without doubt, the answer is, "Yes."
That's especially true with the short story collection that you are about to read by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. It was originally published under the title A Humble Romance and Other Stories (1887). But it was supposed to be published as Green Mountain Stories.
Now, 136 years later, the collection is being published under its intended title. Green Mountain Stories, with an extensive critical commentary providing the intriguing backstory. This publication anchors Freeman solidly, unequivocally, and forever to Vermont-The Green Mountain State-where she launched her acclaimed literary career. Vermont can now claim Freeman as its own, just as exclusively as Freeman claimed Vermont as her own, from the start of her career until the end. The publication marks the beginning of Freeman's journey back home to Vermont.
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Brent L. Kendrick, Ph.D., is widely known for his scholarly work on Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and is the editor of The Infant Sphinx: Collected Letters of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, praised by The Journal of Modern Literature as "the most complete record to date of Freeman's life as writer and woman." He is working on a new, two-volume update--Dolly: Life and Letters of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. Vol I: The New England Years (1852-1901). Vol II: The New Jersey Years (1902-1930). He earned his Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of South Carolina. After a twenty-five-year career at the Library of Congress-where he received the institution's Distinguished Service Award-he relocated to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and taught American Literature and Creative Writing at Laurel Ridge Community College (formerly Lord Fairfax Community College) from 1999-2022. The State Council of Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV) named him one of the top twelve educators in the Commonwealth (2008). He received the Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence (Virginia Community College System, 2010). He was a Chancellor's Professor (2012-2014). He was the first recipient of the Susan S. Wood Professorship for Teaching Excellence (2016).