The Quotable Barn Cat

The essential barn cat, from mouser to farmer’s overseer, pictured in all its charm, with comments that famous writers have made about cats over the centuries.

What picture of farm life is complete without the woman at its heart? Rising before dawn to start the fire, sitting up long after dark to do her mending, she holds farm and family together. In moving photographs and prose, this book celebrates the life of the farm wife, with its hours of hard work and moments of ineffable sweetness. Pictured at tasks such as feeding chickens or on the tractor; caught in a rare stillness against the endless horizon or in a moment of well-deserved rest: Here is the farm wife as she is and was and will be, at the heart of the American farm, and of the American story.

Because she's looking for something special, the great barn cat notices but shows no interest in the activities of the animals which can be counted around her.

The best of Maine's contemporary authors celebrate their state in poetry, fiction, and essays that comprise a lively sampler as varied as the state that inspired it. A treasury of works --many previously unpublished--it includes Philip Booth, Franklin Burroughs, Carolyn Chute, Robert Creeley, Amy Clampitt, George Garrett, Susan Kenney, Cathie Pelletier, and 32 others.

An unexpectedly wide range of writers weigh in on the feline, from Twain, Coward, Dickens, and Beatrix Potter to Hemingway, Yeats, Garrison Keillor, and Erma Bombeck. There are thought-provoking and delightful proverbs, too-- such as the sly saying: When cat and mouse agree, the farmer has no chance. An irresistible delight for cat lovers everywhere.

Forty-five cats, young and old, smiling and morose, affectionate and aloof. Each is accompanied by an apt quotation ("Dogs come when they're called. Cats takes a message and get back to you.") drawn from a variety of the most articulate celebrators of the cat, including Chekhov and Colette, Hemingway and Jules Verne, Leonardo da Vinci ("The smallest feline is a masterpiece.") and Jim Davis of Garfield fame. A cat alone by the telephone, a cat eyeing a goldfish, a cat returning the love of a person, an intrepid explorer kitten--image after image, printed in glowing sepia tones on ivory paper, demonstrates the special grace and intuition that Dratfield and Coughlin bring to the photography of animals. This beautiful cat book is sure to be the perfect treat for your favorite cat lover.