Catskill Crafts: Artisans of the Catskill Mountains

x, 174 pp. 8vo. By the Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Thousand Acres. 'In her first nonfiction work, the author of Barn Blind fashions what she calls a "friendship quilt" from interviews with artisans who see their choice to live in the the New York Catskill Mountains region as being significantly entwined with their decision to live by craftsmanship. Fourth-generation Catskill dwellers as well as recent escapees from Manhattan explore a diversity of craft, which Smiley defines as "the making of useful objects by hand, one at a time." New techniques such as the use of casting and molds in pottery are implemented alongside traditional ones in fashioning quilts, furniture, paper dolls and stained-glass windows.' - Publisher's Weekly