I had lunch with an interesting and delightful fellow the other day. David Leff. He was giving a talk about his last book, The Last Undiscovered Place:
When Leff began to look for a suitable place to raise a family, his criteria were familiar: an affordable fixer-upper with some historical character, pleasant neighbors, good schools, walkable streets, and attractive natural surroundings. The suburbs around Hartford were uninviting, so he settled sixteen miles away in Collinsville, a small village that grew up around―indeed was largely built by―The Collins Company, once the world’s leading maker of edge tools.
Mrs. BD loved the book.
His bio is here. He may not tinker with metal in the traditional Connecticut manner, but this guy is a serious historian of New England. Also, a lawyer, a published poet, professional art photographer, volunteer fireman, professional conservationist, Boy Scout counselor, chicken-raiser, and fly-fisherman. And more. He has a new book coming out this fall.
I greatly admire and enjoy people who invest themselves so fully and productively in life and in their communities.
Here's his website. "I ask not for the great, the remote, the romantic; . . . I embrace the common, I explore and sit at the feet of the familiar, the low." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Re that Emerson, I embrace all of the above, not just the common. Emerson was posing there, I think. Anyway, Leff loves Emerson. I have tried Emerson many times, but he always eludes me.
