The Mount is in a beautiful and interesting part of the world ...

Your self-styled intrepid blogger, an inhabitant of the southern part of Berkshire County, is not actually as intrepid as all that, and tends to confine herself to a ridiculously limited geographical area. Of course, as that area includes The Mount, who can wonder at this self-imposed isolation? However, as a result of being called to do her civic duty as a citizen and report for jury duty, she found herself in the heart of the northern Berkshires, North Adams, Massachusetts. She was not alone on her trek northward, and those companions who were not called upon to perform one of the most precious rights and privileges given to a citizen of these United States, were able to take advantage of this opportunity. They visited Mass MoCA and in particular the Sol Lewitt Wall Drawing Retrospective. This was a treat that cannot be more highly recommended by these companions, one of whom who admittedly attended Byam Shaw School of Art and tends toward a rather Lewittian world view at times. There is time to see it, as it is going to be in place for 25 years, but it is a fantastic conglomeration of his work.

Civic duty notwithstanding, your blogger did find a little time at the end of the day to visit one of the most impressive natural features of the Berkshires, the summit of Mount Greylock. It was snowing. In October. When the snow stopped, and the view cleared it was indescribable.

As this post has not yet mentioned Edith Wharton, it seems fitting to add at this point that Mrs. Wharton, in the back seat presumably, was in the car when her chauffeur, Charles Cook of Lee, Massachusetts, was the first person EVER to drive a car up Mount Greylock! The above photo shows Charles Cook, Edith Wharton, her pal Henry James in the back, and Teddy Wharton with dogs standing by, in front of The Mount in about 1904. The Wharton legacy and influence lives on, even in the far and extremely picturesque northern Berkshires. Your blogger has had her eyes opened, today North Adams, tomorrow Vermont?

Foodies food-fest of fabulousness and can The Mount be called "bleeding edge?"

This news about Gourmet Magazine comes as a shock, and with such incredible timing that we had to blog it at once. The Mount hosted noted food writers Judith Jones, Amanda Hesser, Kim Severson, Oliver Strand, Amanda Kludt and Christine Muhlke on Saturday, October 3, in a discussion on the future of food writing. A great deal of the panel was taken up with the topic of print vs. internet, blogs vs. magazines, and of course, the flagship food magazine Gourmet was discussed at length. There was some speculation that the future of such landmark titles was uncertain, but this news seemed to come out of the blue.

The Mount presented a slideshow before the panel which addressed some of these issues in its own way and it is presented below for your edification. Click autoplay on the menu and enjoy!

The Future of Food Writing

View more presentations from Edith Wharton Restoration Inc.

The ubiquitous Mount!

In a bloggy fog this week, The Mount is thrilled to find itself mentioned in many fascinating links in the news and blogosphere. Always proud to be at the cutting edge, The Mount is not afraid of tooting its own horn now and then, and is basking in the wholly deserved attention it is receiving. For some reason, The Mount is indulging in a feast of personification as well, and for that The Mount apologizes. Back to the link-o-mania--

Hamish Linklater of The New Adventures of Old Christine lived at The Mount as a boy and had ghostly encounters!

Beautiful fall destinations include The Mount!

Foodies are coming to talk about food writing, food blogging and food ...

Banned Books Week

This is Banned Books Week, designed to draw attention to the constant threat of censorship that exists not only throughout the world, but as a very real threat here in the United States. Of particular interest is the list of Banned and Challenged Classics, some of which were not only threatened when they first appeared, but are consistantly brought up again and again in this context.

Edith Wharton's works are not among the challenged on this list, but she certainly fought editorial censorship while trying to publish a number of her works, in particular Old New York The 'Fifties, The Old Maid. She was opposed to censorship both editorial and official, and in fact wrote to Upton Sinclair in support when his novel Oil! was charged with obscenity. Those who value freedom must never cease their vigilance and we encourage all who fight the banning of books.

Even More about Food!

Somehow in our travels throughout the blogosphere, we missed this very interesting blog entry about Edith Wharton and food from the extremely Whartonian blog An Aesthete's Lament.

Wharton often used dining, food, and entertaining in her writing as fantastic indications of her characters and their place in the world. As Diane McGee puts it in her book Writing the Meal: Dinner in the Fiction of Twentieth-Century Women Writers: "The society of Old New York decribed in The Age of Innocence is marked by many customs, rituals, and taboos; those surrounding dining and entertaining are the most potent and meaningful ones. Dining practices are central to social identity. ... As the author, Wharton plays the roles of both hostess and critical guest."

As Mrs. Wharton herself said in The Gods Arrive (1932): "The same trivial, over-dressed and over-fed people acquired a sort of Titianesque value from the sheer loveliness of their setting; grouped about the table with its fruits and flowers, framed in the pink marble shafts of the loggia, above gardens sloping away to the illuminated curve of the shore, they became as pictorial as their background, and Vance’s first thought was: “If only they knew enough not to speak!”

Here at The Mount we have the dining room set as a table for six and try to give Mrs. Wharton more interesting dinner companions than the ones of whom she writes above! We hope she would approve of our current choices, Miss Michelle Pfeiffer and Mr. Daniel Day-Lewis, who both appeared in 1993 film of The Age of Innocence; Mr. Liam Neeson of 1993's Ethan Frome; Mr. Dan Ackroyd, Gus Trenor in 2000's The House of Mirth; and in pride of place (other than our hostess Mrs. Wharton of course) Miss Bette Davis, who appeared in the 1939 movie version of The Old Maid.

Julie and Julia and Judith and Edith

Food writers, food bloggers, and food critics will be converging on The Mount on October 3 for a panel discussion on the Future of Food Writing. Among our panelists will be Judith Jones, the food writer and book editor, who, among her many many other accomplishments, introduced Julia Child to the American reader (the photograph above shows them together); another is Amanda Hesser, food writer and blogger. Both of these women appear in this summer's hit movie Julie and Julia, with Amanda actually appearing in the film, and of course Judith Jones is a featured character, played in the film by Erin Dilly. This event should prove interesting to both foodies and writers, and writers who eat, or foodies who write. What else can we say but "Bon appétit!"

Wharton's work wows WowOwow

The wonderful website WowOwow has just added a photo essay on The Mount, in particular focusing on the gardens. They were designed by Mrs. Wharton herself, with help from her niece, Beatrix Farrand, née Jones. Beatrix Farrand became one of the United States's leading landscape designers and gardeners. She was the only woman to be made a charter member of the American Society of Landscape Architects. At The Mount, Mrs. Farrand designed the maple sugar allée pictured above which leads to the main house. She also designed the kitchen and cutting garden, but unfortunately this garden is no longer extant. There are some apple trees left from the Wharton's time here, but that is all. We hope in the future to resurrect the kitchen and cutting garden and do have Beatrix Farrand's drawings to which to refer.

Our own WoW--Wharton on Wednesdays--has finished for the season and we would like once again to thank the members of the Berkshire Theatre Festival who read for us this year. Our readers were Kate Maguire, Ariel Bock, Jonathan Epstein, Ralph Petillo, Tara Franklin, Gray Simons, David Adkins and Robert McFadyen. We have been so grateful for their help and their absolutely wonderful performances at our readings. We look forward to a long relationship with BTF and they may as well consider this written notice that we want them back next season! (Or maybe even sooner!)