biographies/contemporary art/Maine/hermit
ELMER WALKER
hermit To hero
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Elmer Walker: hermit to hero
by Tonee Harbert
Audenreed Press
A Division of Biddle Publishing Company
ELMER WALKER: HERMIT TO HERO began as a search for the perfect image, one of
rural Maine that might describe the complexities of its people and their way of
life. Created in conjunction with the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine
College of Art, Tonee Harbert's pictorial artistry and Carolyn Chute's tale of
Elmer's life combine to form a masterful depiction of small town Maine.
ISBN: 1-879418-71-1
©1998
$18.00 US
Softcover 49 Pages
To order this book...
EXCERPT
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE HILLS OF MAINE the little birds sing
(chickadees mostly) and sometimes talk and whisper, where deer flash their
white-stocking tail and cattle stand under trees in groups to help each other
with flies and to gossip, "A baby was just born up there at the Walker
house. His name is Elmer."
The workhorses overhear this and are not impressed. They don't really like
human kids. Except the kind that give apples.
Time Passes and Elmer becomes a kid of the age where he walks around and asks
questions. He goes out to the yard with his sister and gives the workhorses
each an apple.
The Horses are impressed.
Time passes.
Out in the world there is evil. There are these institutions all over our land
called "schools." Like prisons and orphanages, children are put in
them. These schools were created by the industrialists, using the Prussian
model, for insuring conformity, for getting people to give up their
interdependence and common sense and their life-sustaining skills, to become
dependent on industry for everything. Schools grade little kids like slabs of
meat and make winners and losers. The Law of the Land says all children will
be forced to go through this amazing process until a certain age.
Time passes.
Elmer is not a guy who conforms. Like many of us. Artists, green thumb people,
outdoor people, non-competitive people. People who don't like taking orders,
shy people, people who work best alone, people who bore easily, people whose
gifts are not honored inside those tall school walls.
Elmer decides rather quickly he likes home better.
Elmer and the horses get to be great pals. The horses tell Elmer many things,
stories of ancient times, stories of miracles before even horses and humans
walked on this planet. Elmer laughs. Elmer's Laugh is enormous and makes all
the roosters crow and the mice jitterbug and it makes Elmer's mother smile.
ENDORSEMENTS
"Harbert's unique photographs and text are beautifully presented
in this book."
Maine In Print