The Education of a Yankee

By Judson Hale and Judson D. Hale Sr.

Book Overview

Written with a delightful sense of irony and a profound tenderness, The Education of a Yankee is an engaging memoir that skillfully reveals the grand, eccentric, and occasionally tragic history of a very unconventional family. Judson Hale was born into Boston's very proper Brahmin world, the son of a wealthy father who loved sailing and horseback riding and a beautiful, talented mother who loved opera and sang professionally. But readers expecting a conventional account of New England privilege will be delightfully surprised. The fate of Hale's older brother, Drake, led his parents to embark on a dramatic, extravagant, and visionary undertaking that changed the family's history and brought a remarkable adventure to the small town of Vanceboro, Maine. So began an idealistic and wonderful dream that was to shape Hale's childhood and adolescence, but which ended differently from what his parents had envisioned. The Education of a Yankee, at once funny and touching, is full of marvelous anecdotes about life on this unusual farm. We watch anxiously as he finally meets his brother, Drake, and see him wrestle with the challenges of joining the family-owned Yankee magazine, which, under his editorial direction, has become the third largest regional magazine in the country.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0872331830
• ISBN13: 9780872331839
• Release Date: November 2014
• Publisher: Bauhan Pub
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

one of the best books I have ever read

Very well written humourous and moving account of a remarkable family and a young boy who grew up to become quite normal in spite of it.Captures theunique qualities of rural Washington county Maine residents very well indeed .Great book!

absolutely delightful account of a most unusual family

For those of us who search for first-rate autobiographies, Mr. Hale has given us a rare gift- a fascinating account of his growing up in a most unusual setting, even by the standards of New England eccentricity. Raised by loving, extremely wealthy parents who abided by - and built a community based upon - an ahead-of-its-time Swiss educational philosophy, Mr. Hale enjoyed a mostly halcyon boyhood which Tom Sawyer would have envied. There is a dark side to his life as well, and Hale doesn't shirk from the harsher realities. This is a first-rate read - a genuine piece of Americana by the editor of Yankee magazine.