The independent bookstore is known for offering an eclectic collection of new, used, rare, antiquarian, and out-of-print books, complemented by clever displays.
The symbols we treasure today were gathered up and incorporated into our modern celebration of Christmas: the tree from Germany, songs from England, the jolly gift-giver from the Netherlands, and recipes from all over the world.
Christmas as we know it—the trees and wreaths, bells and caroling, gifts and good food—is a 19th-century invention. The authors, literally, of the modern celebration were a Stockbridge spinster and a German immigrant: Catharine Sedgwick and Charles Follen.
The Sketch Club was founded by Berkshire native and Great Barrington attorney William Cullen Bryant. With friends, Bryant transformed the Sketch Club into the Century Association.
We do not know how MumBet looked as a child or young woman. We do not know what she sounded like or what her posture, her gait and her gestures were like. Can we determine it at a distance of 300 years?
In the midst of the upheaval, the disruption and the shocking bad taste, it is nice to remember old values. It is with a sigh of relief we remember a strict morality, a common decency and a regard for good taste.
The difference between the British and American novels of manners was that the British novelists could rely upon the stability of their society. In America, Wharton’s characters were either on their way up or down the social ladder.
Stockbridge has come as close to pure preservation, maintaining the frozen past, as is possible in the modern world. Was it to attract tourists, to maintain quality of life, or preserve a way of life? Why?
In its 127 pages containing 150 profiles, and references to many more South Berkshire residents, past and present, the answers to who we are may surprise you.
