In January, Vermont lost one of its greatest authors, Howard Frank Mosher, who died at the age of 75. Mosher was not born in Vermont, but did spend most of his working life in the Green Mountain State, writing mostly works of fiction set in the very real realm of the Northeast Kingdom.His work was beloved by many, including James Saunders, who spends time in Vermont and is a professor of English at Purdue University in Indiana, where he teaches students about Mosher's writing. Saunders will be in Plainfield this Friday to speak about Howard Frank Mosher's posthumous collection of stories Points North, which is being published in 2018.
Saunders discovered Mosher's writing after this daughter started college in Vermont. He eventually saw him speak and read all of his books. In 2010, Saunders met Mosher at one of his talks and the two became friends. Saunders would go on to publish Howard Frank Mosher and the Classics in 2014.
"We literary critics just decide to write about things at a particular point and he just struck me as someone, not only did Vermont lose one of it's great authors, but America lost one of it's greatest authors," Saunders said. "I would say he falls in the tradition of many great American writers, including Mark Twain, who had the capacity to tell a great story, you will recall with Huckleberry Finn, at the same time he's talking about really tragic subjects some time, he's really incorporating humor and I found that Howard Frank Mosher is excellent at that."
Saunders said that the collection of stories published in Points North feels personal in part because he sees himself in one of the characters.
"There's part of it called "Friendship Indiana." And I'm trying to figure out is this really about me and him? He had a way of universalizing his writing so that even if it draw to some extent on a personal situation, he's able to expand it in a way that applies to many more people than just the characters involved in the story," Saunders said. He sees himself in the character called "the city," and another of Mosher's friends in the character called "two fingers," but says "he probably never would tell if that's what it's about."
"I feel his presence and the things that he told me and the things he had to offer this world more strongly now than when he was alive." - James Saunders
Saunders says Points North is perhaps Mosher's best work, and he says there is one story about an African-American man and his grandson that is particularly striking.
"I think Mosher is really good at portraying black characters," Saunders said. "When it comes to A Stranger in the Kingdom, I take it as another version of To Kill A Mockingbird except in Vermont, and in that particular case the black man wins as opposed to To Kill A Mockingbird." "I don't know how he does it. but he's very good at portraying many types of characters," Saunders said. "I chalk it up to just him having been a very sensitive person."
Saunders said he came to view Mosher as a father figure and he can't help but talk about him in the present tense.
"I feel his presence and the things that he told me and the things he had to offer this world more strongly now than when he was alive."
James Saunders will be speaking at the Cutler Memorial Library in Plainfield on Friday Dec. 15 at 6 p.m. His speech is entitled "Final Lessons From the Teacher.”