At Midnight on the 31st of March

by Josephine Young Case, Frank Bergmann (Foreword)

At midnight on the thirty-first of March, in the village of Saugersville, in upstate New York, young John Herbert is left in darkness when the electric power goes off. The net morning George, who drives the milk truck, turns a bewildered face to the little group in the village store and says, “the road ain’t there no more.” Search parties are sent out and return, days later, exhausted and afraid, having found no other towns, railroads, or people. This is the dramatic background for the narrative poem; it is a classic tale for the ages, a psychological fantasy and a poetic equivalent of Wilder’s Our Town rolled into one.

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1938

Reviews

[Karen Glass · Rating 4 out of 5]

HAUNTING! On the 31st of March a small town is left untouched when all the rest of the world goes back in time thousands and thousands of years. The book is written in blank verse and answers no questions of how or why. Instead it explores our need for a greater world and how little we know about real survival.

Very interesting book. written in 1938.

[Thomas Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good book, written in 1938. It is written in narrative poetry form, and elegantly tells the story of a small village that wakes up the morning of April 1st with all contact and evidence of an outside world completely gone. As the story progresses, each person in the village tries to deal with the knowledge that there are no humans and no cities left on Earth except them. They manage to live on their own efforts for a year, and go to bed on March 31st wondering what will happen at midnight. I recommend it for those who love the art of writing.
It is available from booksellers and collectors, and is not available in e-book format.

[Wade · Rating 5 out of 5]

This 1938 fantasy tells the story the people of Saugersville NY when their town is mysteriously transported centuries back in time. The book, written wholly in blank verse, focuses on people and relationships.

[Deni Finch-frederick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic and will haunt you for a long time. Don't let the blank verse format throw you - after the first few pages you won't even notice.

Even better than I remembered. So worth the time!