In the Backyards of Our Lives and Other Essays

Most of the gracious, literate and eminently civilized essays in this collection appeared first in the Christian Science Monitor . Kidder, a New Englander by birth, has two abiding loves: his native heath and great wordsmithing. On the former, he captures brilliantly the pervasive sense of the past, the crispness of autumn, the joys of growing up in a small town and exploring the countryside, with its old stone walls. On the latter he writes of his fondness for Emily Dickinson, Shakespeare, e.e. cummings and even Walt Kelly of Pogo fame, all of whom, he notes, display the power and the joy of superb style. Kidder has other enthusiasms as well: his memoirs of playing marbles, visiting an icehouse and buying penny candies are all infectious. (June)