Monadnock Tales by Edie Clark

A slim but unforgettable collection of poems, Monadnock Tales is a celebration of those who have lived under the shadow and protection of Mount Monadnock, the peak for which New Hampshire’s southwestern region is named.

Longtime Yankee writer Edie Clark spans the decades as she tells stories of farmers and pilgrims and wolves and fires; characters who were inspired to climb, to paint, to write, to get married, and to be buried on this mountain. In her words, Monadnock is “The rising point that greets our days, the long black body that spreads across the starry sky and guards our nights.”

Monadnock Tales reveals the history of the mountain and its inhabitants—humans and animals alike—in beautiful yet simple language that speaks to the essence of this place.  —Katharine Van Itallie, Yankee art director

Read and treasure Edie Clark's Monadnock Tales; a long, narrative poem about Mount Monadnock, a mountain that is small in stature but big in the hearts of those who live near it and who recognize its mystical powers.

Monadnock rivals Mt. Fuji as the “most climbed mountain in the world,” and has been worshiped by artists, painters, and writers since the area was settled.

This poem is the result of a collaboration between Edie and composer Larry Siegel. Together, they created a musical work that arises from and reflects a love of the mountain and the Monadnock Region.

This work, which is the narrative portion of the musical work, features nine individual poems, and is a celebration of the mountain, a place know to Ralph Waldo Emerson as “Cheshire’s haughty hill” and to countless others as home.