A matter of fifty houses

Walter R. Hard

There are approximately 90 poems by Walter Hard who has a wonderful sense of Vermont and Vermonters. The back page of another of his books "Vermont Sampler" describes him as usually wryly humorous but sometimes quietly dramatic. It helps to remember Vermont when it was a state of farms and country folk. Here's Eber Stevens who counted his change at the bank so many times he was asked if he had been given enough. Sighed Eber, "Jest barely." Walter Hard was born in Manchester, Vt. in 1882, graduated from Williams College, ran the family drugstore for 31 years and then in 1935 opened the "Johnny Appleseed" bookshop. He also served 5 terms in the Vermont Legislature.