Lucy’s Summer

Former Poet Laureate Donald Hall grew up spending his summers on his grandfather Keniston’s farm in what was then rural New Hampshire. It was there that his mother, Lucy, and her sister Caroline, had grown up, milking cows, raising sheep, and telling stories about their childhood – a time when the July Fourth parade in Danbury was the biggest celebration of the year (complete with flags, speeches, and ice cream) and when a trip to Boston, where toys could be bought for a penny apiece, was counted as a major event. Published in the same format and with the same delightful handcolored scratchboard illustrations by Michael McCurdy as Lucy’s Christmas, this is a piece of Americana that will bring readers back to a simpler and gentler America in which pleasure was derived from making as much as buying, where politics were truly local and not a national circus, and when worth was determined by character, not price.

Donald Hall was revered as a preeminent man of American letters. Hall served as U.S. Poet Laureate from 2006—2007, but was also considered among the greatest essayists of his time. In 2010, Hall was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama. Hall approached writing as he approached life–with simplicity, affection, and a wry wit.

Michael McCurdy was an American illustrator, author, and publisher. He illustrated over 200 books in his career, including ten that he also authored. Most were illustrated with his trademark black and white wood engravings.