The Quarry Book

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.

Library Journal

Both of these titles offer sagas of New England families in the 1800s. If a Lion illustrates a lack of communication as a young Massachussetts missionary couple attempt to convert Blackfoot Indians to Christianity. Preacher Marcus, however, falls in love with an Indian woman and must pay a hefty price (LJ 11/1/70). The Quarry (1947) traces several generations of Vermont miners from the Civil War to World War I.