{"id":413,"date":"2016-08-24T13:16:08","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T13:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eecsocietyblog.org\/?p=413"},"modified":"2018-08-08T18:49:58","modified_gmt":"2018-08-08T22:49:58","slug":"silver-lake-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eecsocietyblog.org\/?p=413","title":{"rendered":"Silver Lake Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photos by Gillian Huang-Tiller and Ken Tiller unless otherwise noted
\nClick here for the\u00a0Spring\u00a0<\/em>version of this piece<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1997, Spring<\/em> published Norman Friedman\u2019s and David V. Forrest\u2019s \u201cOur Trip to Silver Lake<\/a>,\u201d a brief account (with many good photos) of the Cummings Society\u2019s 1996 trip to New Hampshire to visit to Cummings\u2019 summer home, Joy Farm<\/a>. In this post, we chronicle a return visit nineteen years later, sponsored by the Friends of Madison Library (FOML). Besides visiting Joy Farm, we were able to make outdoor visits to \u201cAbenaki,\u201d the Cummings cottage on Silver Lake, as well as Ruth Shackford\u2019s farm<\/a>, old Mr. Lyman\u2019s house and barn<\/a>, Sam Ward\u2019s house, and (almost) Hurricane Point<\/a>. In addition, we spent a morning and part of an afternoon viewing the Cummings paintings and memorabilia collected at the Madison Historical Society Museum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The visitors from the Cummings Society were Gillian Huang-Tiller, her husband Ken Tiller, Steven Katz, and Michael Webster\u2014five fewer in number than those who made the 1996 journey. Our hosts were numerous, and generous with their time, advice, performances, and conversation. Chief among them are Susan Lee (Madison Library), Peter and Joyce Stevens, Peter and Becky Mattison (Joy Farm), Ann and David Wilkins (Madison Historical Society), Carol Batchelder, Ruth Shackford, and her son, Jesse Shackford, III.<\/p>\n

Early Friday afternoon, Joyce Stevens and her husband Peter led a group consisting of David and Ann Wilkins, Gillian Huang-Tiller, Ken Tiller, and Michael Webster up a rutted two track path through the woods to \u201cAbenaki,\u201d the house that the Reverend Edward Cummings and Sam Ward<\/a> built on Silver Lake, with a view of Mount Chocorua.[1]<\/a> The property today is some 75 acres, but back then, Edward Cummings owned even more\u2014almost the whole east side of the lake. The house is three stories, plus a large livable attic space. Since the current owner had not yet opened for the season, we could only view the house from the outside.<\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/a>

Figure 1: Abenaki<\/p><\/div>\n

In the winter of 1909-1910, Sam Ward and others transported all the building materials for the house across the frozen lake via sledge. Cummings\u2019 sister Elizabeth noted in her memoir that when the Cummings family arrived in the summer of 1910, \u201cthe cellar, walls, roof, and sides of the house were made, but there were only very rough floors, there were no windows in the window frames, and the stairs were not finished. My brother and I were delighted to be living by the lake and to be able to swim and go out in boats, and to help build our house. The whole family turned to and helped\u201d (87).<\/p>\n

The Reverend Cummings was something of a developer of the east side of Silver Lake: he designed and helped build at least two other houses there: the Smith-Ettinger-Foerster house on Hurricane Point and the Winter Road Hill house, built in the style of a Norwegian country house for English professor and editor William D. Howe. (See Bubb 29-34, 69-73 and Pfeffer 116-120.) A visit to the Foerster house is briefly discussed in Friedman and Forrest\u2019s article (9) and Margaret Foerster herself writes of the house<\/a> in Spring<\/em> 6. Another source of information on Abenaki and Edward\u2019s house-building is Roy Bubb\u2019s Among the Giant Pines: The Century-Old Summer Houses of Silver Lake<\/em>.[2}<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/a>

Figure 2: view of Mount Chocorua from Abenaki<\/p><\/div>\n

Later Friday afternoon we followed Joyce Stevens\u2019 car up High Street and North Division Road to a turn-off on a kind of one-lane dirt logging road (what we in Michigan call a \u201ctwo-track\u201d) and bumped along through the dense woods for maybe a mile until we emerged in a clearing to see Joy Farm<\/a> at the top of the hill. The current owners, Peter and Becky Mattison, hosted a marvelous tea<\/a> for the visitors and locals, served on the first and second floor porches with a view of Mount Chocorua and the White Mountains.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/a>

Figure 3: View from the first floor porch at Joy Farm<\/p><\/div>\n

(By the way, the natives of Madison, NH and environs pronounce \u201cChocorua\u201d like this: \u201cSho – KOR – u (oo) – wa\u201d\u2014with the accent on the second syllable.) Joy Farm was bought in 1899 from one Ephraim Joy and refurbished and expanded by Cummings\u2019 father, with extensive help from a local carpenter with the resonant name of Zantford Savary.<\/p>\n

\"Additional<\/a>

Additional photo: Zantford Savary (courtesy of Joyce Stevens)<\/p><\/div>\n

In our \u201cCummings at Silver Lake\u201d brochure, Joyce Stevens had transcribed some notes in which Cummings describes how his father transformed the house:<\/p>\n

When my New Hampshire father bought what was variously known as the Hatch place or the Joy farm (after successive owners Hatch and Ephraim Joy) its primitive hilltop house faced a painfully made clearing. Not for nothing is New Hampshire nicknamed the Granite State; that clearing was ringed with gigantic rocks: boulders of all imaginable shapes yanked from the earth, year after year, by sweating men and horses. . . . All the ramshackle house\u2019s crazy windows gave on to that clearing\u2014not even a peephole graced the opposite side. [H]ad the back of the house contained a single aperture some Hatch or Joy might have found herself or himself confronted by some of the seven loveliest mountains in the world. . . . My father\u2019s first deed was, by cutting windows and building a porch on the side toward the seven mountains, to turn his newly purchased house around without moving it.<\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/a>

Figure 4: Joy Farm now<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Figure<\/a>

Figure 5: Joy Farm then<\/p><\/div>\n

Six of these seven peaks are marked in the photo of \u201cJoy Farm then.\u201d Comparing this photo with one of the present-day house, we can clearly see how Mattisons\u2019 addition on the right has replaced a much smaller kitchen area. (Peter Mattison told me that a massive fireplace in the kitchen collapsed and had to be rebuilt.) Of course, the large windows that Edward added on the mountain side of the house are not visible in the \u201cthen\u201d photo, but we can see on the left of the photo how the second story extends over the first floor porch. Elizabeth Cummings\u2019 memoir describes these renovations:<\/p>\n

Later my father made the house still bigger by building a full second story that extended out over the porch. . . . After the house was made bigger, the roof had a long flat part with a railing around it. There were stairs leading up to the roof, we used to have lots of fun on that flat roof. From it you could look out to the mountains and to the woods and fields all around. (110)<\/p>\n

In the photo, we can clearly see the stairway to the flat roof between the first and second dormer windows. (All the dormer windows were also added by Edward Cummings.) As he did at Silver Lake some 10-15 years later, Cummings\u2019 father sold or donated some of his large land holdings around Joy Farm. His brother John lived just north of Joy Farm, and in 1900, Edward gave ten acres of land just to the south to the Reverend Samuel Crothers, a fellow Unitarian minister. The \u201cCrothers Croft\u201d was also built by Zantford Savary.<\/p>\n

Cummings\u2019 father opened up the interior of the house by removing some partitions and constructing a large open staircase in the middle of the house. The railings and risers on the staircase, as well as the shelves he built for books, are constructed of 2″ x 6″ boards. The extensive renovations and solid construction of the house are the marks of a confident man: the Reverend Edward Cummings was no meek little preacher. The stairway in particular reminds me of his son\u2019s description of Picasso as a \u201cLumberman of The Distinct\u201d chopping \u201chughest inherent \/ Trees of Ego\u201d to \u201chew form truly\u201d (CP 95).<\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/a>

Figure 6: Downstairs sitting room, with the stairway in the foreground<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Additional<\/a>

Additional photo: Top of stairs at Joy Farm<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Additional<\/a>

Additional photo: Antlers and bust at the top of the stairs<\/p><\/div>\n

At the top of the stairs was very large (2-3 feet high) plaster bust of Zeus\u2014a sort of unwearable mask. Downstairs there were many books on the shelves\u2014 almost all of them Edward\u2019s or Rebecca\u2019s. The Mattisons has set out many old magazines out on tables and chairs\u2014some Outlook<\/em> magazines circa 1903-1910, some fashion mags and New Yorker<\/em>s from the \u201930s and ’40s, a few Paris Match<\/em>es from the \u201940s and \u201950s, and the 1953 LIFE magazine with the complete publication of Hemingway\u2019s Old Man and the Sea<\/em>. Cummings\u2019 palettes were on display, as well as two quite good small portraits\u2014one of himself and one of Anne.<\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/a>

Figure 7: Cummings\u2019 sweater and Hemingway issue of LIFE<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Figure<\/a>

Figure 8: Cummings’ self-portrait and his portrait of Anne<\/p><\/div>\n

On Friday evening, the FOML presented a \u201cCummings at Silver Lake\u201d program<\/a> at Noyes Hall in the Madison School. David Wilkins began with a short nonlecture impersonation of E. E. Cummings, followed by Wilkins (as Cummings) and Peter Stevens (as his questioner) reading the short dialogue called \u201cForeword to an Exhibit: II\u201d (Miscellany<\/em> 316-317), which was followed by a reading of \u201cA Poet\u2019s Advice to Students\u201d (Miscellany<\/em> 335). Next, the Silver Lake Singers performed six musical versions of Cummings poems, including Vincent Persichetti\u2019s setting of \u201cpurer than purest pure\u201d (CP 601), Ellen Mandel\u2019s setting of \u201cwhen faces called flowers float out of the ground\u201d (CP 665), and Dexter Harding\u2019s setting of \u201cI\u2019m very fond of \/ black bean \/ soup\u201d (CP 1023), performed on guitar by the composer himself. Jesse Shackford III and Ruth Shackford then read some of Cummings\u2019 letters written to Ruth when she was caretaker of Joy Farm. (Excerpts from these letters may be read in Norman Friedman\u2019s article in Spring<\/em> 6<\/a>.) The program concluded with a round table of reminiscences of Cummings and Marion by Jesse Shackford, Ruth Shackford, Henry Forrest, Linda Drew Smith, and Carol Batchelder.<\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/a>

Figure 9: Jesse and Ruth Shackford (photo by Duane Dale)<\/p><\/div>\n

Jesse talked of the time when Marion called him to Joy Farm to help her after Cummings suffered the massive stroke that ended his life. Carol Batchelder spoke of how Cummings would stand by the memorial light looking out at the lake while Marion went to the post office or the store. (See Carol\u2019s article in Spring<\/em> 6, \u201cNobody-But-Himself<\/a>.<\/a>\u201d) One can hear Ruth and Jesse Shackford discuss the Cummings they knew in this audio postcard<\/a> from New Hampshire Public Radio.<\/p>\n

On Saturday at the Historical Society Museum<\/a>, Steven Katz gave an excellent talk on Cummings\u2019 art, concentrating on the Silver Lake \/ Joy Farm \/ Mt. Chocorua works.<\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/a>

Figure 10: Steven Katz presenting<\/p><\/div>\n

In the Museum gallery were several of Cummings\u2019 oil sketches, as well as two fine landscapes of Mount Chocorua donated by Ruth Shackford.<\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/a>

Figure 11: E. E. Cummings, Mount Chocorua (1949; photo: FOML)<\/p><\/div>\n

Also on display were early photos of Elizabeth and Estlin and their father, Elizabeth\u2019s (quite large) doll, and a shield that the 10-year old Cummings made from the bottom or top of a sugar barrel. With his wood-burning kit, he incised in the middle of the shield his totem animal, an elephant. Around the edge of the shield \u201care 10 rather abstracted animals, including a goat, a snake, a tiger, a leopard, a dog, a rhinoceros, and an alligator or crocodile\u201d (Wilkins<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/a>

Figure 12: Cummings\u2019 elephant shield<\/p><\/div>\n

On Saturday afternoon, with the help of an excellent map provided by our hosts, we went on a self-guided tour of outdoor sights around Silver Lake. We drove first to the Depot, Post Office<\/a>, and Memorial Lighthouse<\/a> at the head of Silver Lake. Frank Lyman\u2019s place<\/a> is just down the road: Mr. Lyman<\/a> would supply Cummings and Marion with fresh vegetables, and of course, he is the wise protagonist of \u201cold mr ly\u201d (CP 567). Another Cummings poem, \u201cnow comes the good rain farmers pray for(and\u201d (CP 754), depicts Frank and his son Reg and daughter-in-law Lena standing in \u201cthe barn\u2019s immense \/ doorway,\u201d watching the rain fall. When we were there, the barn was filled with antiques, and outside was a small exhibit showing the photo of Mr. Lyman from Adventures in Value<\/em>. A grasshopper alighted and Gillian snapped a photo.<\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/a>

Figure 13: Grasshopper and Frank Lyman<\/p><\/div>\n

North of the Lyman place on High Street is Jess Shackford\u2019s farm<\/a>, while to the south on Plains Road on the west side of Silver Lake is Sam Ward\u2019s farm. Ruth Shackford<\/a> showed us a small landscape that Cummings painted, with a view of Mount Chocorua.<\/p>\n

\"Ruth<\/a>

Figure 14: Ruth Shackford and painting<\/p><\/div>\n

At Sam Ward\u2019s place, current owner Joyce Stevens had displayed on the porch some photos of Sam and his wife Mame, a composition board with Cummings\u2019 elegy for Sam, \u201crain or hail\u201d (CP 568), and copies of letters (from the Houghton Library) to and from Cummings and Sam.<\/p>\n

Our last stop was a visit to Hurricane Point Natural Area<\/a>. In the summer and autumn of 1920, Cummings finished writing the bulk of The Enormous Room<\/em><\/a> at his tree house on the point. (He would paddle a canoe from Abenaki to the point, work all day, then paddle back for supper.) The Friends of Madison Library web site Cummings at Silver Lake<\/em> notes that \u201cThree pine stumps and a rotting trunk inclining down-slope toward the lake mark the site of the tree house.\u201d Despite the excellent trail leading to the end of the point, Gillian, Ken, and I cravenly retreated after seeing masses of poison ivy lining the pathway. We missed the remnants, but the wonderful site reminded us that even while writing of his incarceration in a French prison camp, Cummings remained close to nature.<\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/a>

Figure 15: Searching for Hurricane Point<\/p><\/div>\n

________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Michael Webster
\nGrand Valley State University
\n________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Sam Ward<\/a> is eulogized in Cummings\u2019 poem \u201crain or hail\u201d: \u201csam was a man \/ grinned his grin \/ done his chores \/ laid him down\u201d (CP 568).<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Among the Giant Pines<\/em><\/a> may be purchased from the Madison Historical Society Museum. (Chapter two, titled \u201cReverend Edward Cummings Family\u2014Joy Farm and Abenaki,\u201d also has a brief consideration of Sam Ward.)<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Some photos of the tea at Joy Farm<\/a> have been posted on the FOML Cummings at Silver Lake<\/em> site.<\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/strong><\/p>\n

Batchelder Carol A. \u201cNobody-But-Himself<\/a>.\u201d Spring: The Journal of the E. E. Cummings<\/em> Society<\/em> 6 (1997): 26-44.<\/p>\n

Bubb, Roy. Among the Giant Pines<\/a>: The Century-Old Summer Houses of Silver Lake<\/em>. Madison, NH: RB Press \/ Madison Historical Society, 2013. [Chapter two is titled \u201cReverend Edward Cummings Family\u2014Joy Farm and Abenaki.\u201d]<\/p>\n

Cummings, E. E. \u201cForeword to an Exhibit: II.\u201d Memorial Gallery, Rochester, NY (May 1945). Rpt. in E. E. Cummings: A Miscellany Revised<\/em>. Ed. George J. Firmage. New York: October House, 1965. 316-317.<\/p>\n

—. \u201cA Poet\u2019s Advice to Students\u201d Ottawa Hills Spectator<\/em> (26 Oct. 1955). Rpt. in E. E. Cummings: A Miscellany Revised<\/em>. Ed. George J. Firmage. New York: October House, 1965. 335.<\/p>\n

Donahue, Molly. \u201cAudio Postcard: A Celebration of E.E. Cummings<\/a>.\u201d Word of Mouth<\/em>, New Hampshire Public Radio<\/em>, 20 July 2015. Web and Radio.<\/p>\n

FOML. \u201cE. E. Cummings at Silver Lake.\u201d Madison, N.H.: Friends of Madison Library, 2015. Brochure.<\/p>\n

—. \u201cWhere did E. E. Cummings write The Enormous\u00a0Room<\/em><\/a>?\u201d Cummings at Silver Lake<\/em>, Friends of Madison Library, 31 May 2015. Web.<\/p>\n

—. \u201cTea at Joy Farm<\/a>.\u201d Cummings at Silver Lake<\/em>, Friends of Madison Library, 16 July 2015. Web.<\/p>\n

Foerster, Margaret. \u201cA Note on Cummings and My Family at Silver Lake<\/a>.\u201d Spring: The Journal of the E. E. Cummings Society<\/em> 6 (1997): 22-25.<\/p>\n

Friedman, Norman. \u201cLetters from the Cummingses to Ruth Shackford<\/a>.\u201d Spring: The Journal of the E .E. Cummings Society<\/em> 6 (1997): 18-21.<\/p>\n

Friedman, Norman and David V. Forrest. \u201cOur Trip to Silver Lake<\/a>.\u201d Spring: The Journal of the E. E. Cummings Society<\/em> 6 (1997): 9-17.<\/p>\n

Pfeffer, W. Tad. The Hand of the Small Town Builder: Summer Homes in Northern New England, 1876-1930<\/em>. Boston: David R. Godine, 2013.<\/p>\n

Qualey, Elizabeth Cummings. When I Was a Little Girl<\/em>. Ed. Carlton C. Qualey. Center Ossipee, NH: Carroll County Independent, 1981.<\/p>\n

Stevens, Peter. \u201cSam Ward<\/a>.\u201d Cummings at Silver Lake<\/em>, Friends of Madison Library, April 2015. Web.<\/p>\n

Wilkins, David G. and FOML. \u201cMadison Historical Society: The Cummings Family Collection at the Madison Historical Society<\/a>.\u201d Cummings at Silver Lake<\/em>, Friends of Madison Library, April 2015. Web.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photos by Gillian Huang-Tiller and Ken Tiller unless otherwise noted Click here for the\u00a0Spring\u00a0version of this piece In 1997, Spring published Norman Friedman\u2019s and David V. Forrest\u2019s \u201cOur Trip to Silver Lake,\u201d a brief account (with many good photos) of the Cummings Society\u2019s 1996 trip to New Hampshire to visit to Cummings\u2019 summer home, Joy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eecsocietyblog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eecsocietyblog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eecsocietyblog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eecsocietyblog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eecsocietyblog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=413"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.eecsocietyblog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1189,"href":"https:\/\/www.eecsocietyblog.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions\/1189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eecsocietyblog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eecsocietyblog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eecsocietyblog.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}