THE IMPORTANCE OF (LOCAL) HISTORY
The Perils of Parsimony, 1881 – A THANKSGIVING STORY
The following cautionary tale was published in the November 24, 1881 issue of the Hillsdale Harbinger.
“The Badgerleys coming here to spend Thanksgiving?” said Mrs. Nettingley. “Not if I know it.”
Mrs. Nettingley was a close-fisted and calculating matron, who lived in a handsome house in a stylish neighborhood in New York and was one of those who, as her maid-of-all-work expressed […]
Don’t Have a Cow
Over the years, a number of celebrities have lived in or visited Hillsdale. Some were not famous when they lived here but achieved celeb status elsewhere. But Hillsdale was always “home.” A case in point was Hudson River School painter John Bunyan Bristol, who was born in Hillsdale but achieved prominence in New York City. Even after he achieved worldwide […]
The Writing Life – James Agee in Hillsdale – Part 2
Agee left Fortune to join Time magazine as book reviewer and film critic. In 1942 he moved to The Nation where his film criticism found a growing circle of intellectual admirers, including W.H. Auden, who wrote “In my opinion, [Agee’s] column is the most remarkable regular event in American journalism today.” As a film reviewer, he brought a level of […]
The Writing Life – James Agee in Hillsdale – Part 1
James Agee was a commanding literary voice in mid-20th-century America: an extraordinarily versatile writer who in his lifetime won acclaim as a novelist, poet, and screenwriter. He is buried on a farm in Hillsdale.
That’s not big news. But we’ve also been told for years that he never actually lived in Hillsdale. That seemed odd. Why would a person who never […]
