Guy Lochhead, 09/09/10
Perrin was an American essayist, journalist, environmentalist, lecturer and farmer. He wrote on a wide range of topics – Japanese history, farming, electric cars and cookery, but is best known for his Washington Post columns unearthing overlooked literary works. He drove an electric car from 1990. He once said of himself, “I currently spend half my time teaching at Dartmouth, half farming and half writing. This adds up to three halves I am all too aware”. I got so excited reading about Perrin. He sounds like an honest, conscientious, funny man, with an incredible curiosity and a talent to write about a huge range of topics with passion and accuracy. I’ll include a collection of his writing about being an amateur farmer, ‘Best Person Rural: Essays Of A Sometime Farmer’, which is exemplary in its caring, considerate approach to nature and small-holdings. I’ll also read the collections of his literary archeology, ‘A Reader’s Delight’ and ‘A Child’s Delight’, and hopefully include some of the works he mentions there too. His writing is educational and inspirational. He lived the good things he wrote about. I think I love him. <3!