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Louis Bromfield at Malabar: Writings on Farming and Country Life
Essays discuss the rewards and responsibilities of farming, the dangers of chemical pesticides, and the future of the family farm
284 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1988
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August 10, 2008
This book is a perfect introduction to Louis Bromfield. Each essay is representative of a certain period in the life of Malabar farm, and Little's introductions illumine each essay with interesting contextual information.
Little's contributions at the beginning and end of the book are wonderful--he obviously has great affection for Bromfield, but speaks about his farm writings very objectively, weighing both his successes and failures as a writer, farmer, and visionary.
The last essay, "Fifteen Years Later," is by far the most powerful in the collection. Writing one year before his death, Bromfield casts doubt on many of the naive visions he had for Malabar, which he shared in essays printed earlier in the book. Little wrote a beautiful introduction to this essay, which bear quoting perhaps more than the essay itself:
"Reading this essay, from the advantage provided by several decades of hindsight, it is poignant to see how Bromfield misunderstood his work as a writer, his role as an experimental farmer, and his effort to expand the Jeffersonian lessons of Malabar onto the larger canvas of American political life....
"He should have known better, of course, but how many of us recognize our own false assumptions? The performance was not weak; the objectives were falsely constructed, a difficulty experienced by nearly all creative people--the touch of hubris. In the end, the failures of self-understanding are unimportant, especially when compared to the one, big thing that Louis Bromfield got right: that his work at Malabar gave him a sense of belonging to something larger than himself, 'to something vast, but infinitely friendly.'"
Little's contributions at the beginning and end of the book are wonderful--he obviously has great affection for Bromfield, but speaks about his farm writings very objectively, weighing both his successes and failures as a writer, farmer, and visionary.
The last essay, "Fifteen Years Later," is by far the most powerful in the collection. Writing one year before his death, Bromfield casts doubt on many of the naive visions he had for Malabar, which he shared in essays printed earlier in the book. Little wrote a beautiful introduction to this essay, which bear quoting perhaps more than the essay itself:
"Reading this essay, from the advantage provided by several decades of hindsight, it is poignant to see how Bromfield misunderstood his work as a writer, his role as an experimental farmer, and his effort to expand the Jeffersonian lessons of Malabar onto the larger canvas of American political life....
"He should have known better, of course, but how many of us recognize our own false assumptions? The performance was not weak; the objectives were falsely constructed, a difficulty experienced by nearly all creative people--the touch of hubris. In the end, the failures of self-understanding are unimportant, especially when compared to the one, big thing that Louis Bromfield got right: that his work at Malabar gave him a sense of belonging to something larger than himself, 'to something vast, but infinitely friendly.'"
Displaying 1 of 1 review