In this family saga, generations mine the Vermont earth and come to rest in it. Lyman Converse is too young to fight in the Civil War, but he lives to see his own son enlist in World War I. Through all the years his closest friend is Easy, an escaped black slave who took refuge in his father’s house. Everything Converse values most is gradually lost to time, including the family-owned soapstone quarry. The Quarry invites readers to escape into private lives worth caring about—and to feel the national history that they could not escape.

 

Originally published in 1947 and considered one of Mildred Walker’s richest novels, The Quarry is introduced by Ripley Hugo, Walker’s daughter. Hugo edited, with James Welch, The Real West Marginal Way: A Poet’s Autobiography by Richard Hugo.

“A warm, moving book, a touch old-fashioned, and very American.”—New Yorker

“A satisfying piece of work, well constructed and well written. As a regional novel, it gives a convincing delineation of upstate Vermont in the period between the Civil War and World War One, and it also leaves the reader with the pleasing consciousness that maintaining a standard of conduct—such things as tolerance, integrity, and loyalty—can make good fiction material.”—Christian Science Monitor

“Walker has done a fine bit of documentation on what might be called the deflowering of New England.”—New York Times