Remembering Edie Clark

Growing up in a household where Yankee was always on our coffee table, I was a fan of Edie Clark’s years before I came to work here. So it was surreal to find myself strolling with her cherished dog, Harriet, at the New Hampshire homestead that Edie made famous in her column “Mary’s Farm.”

Aside from a brief stint as Edie’s volunteer dog walker, I didn’t know her well personally. But like so many who have loved her writing, I thought of her as a close friend—someone I knew and was grateful to have in my life.

Though she passed in 2024, I feel Edie’s presence through her books, many of which are collections of her Yankee writing, such as The View from Mary’s Farm and As Simple as That. When I gift these titles to fellow fans or introduce them to new readers, I think of what former Yankee editor Mel Allen wrote in a tribute to his late friend:

“A writer leaves her life on the page, which we can visit whenever we wish, as often as we desire. Edie lives on through her words, and she has left us hundreds of thousands of them. To say that she will be missed is an understatement. To say her work will endure long into the future is not.” —Jenn Johnson, Yankee senior managing editor