Books on New England history for your holiday shopping!

Here is a selection of my books that tell stories of New England history.  Please consider them when shopping for your book lover/history fan!

BESIDE THE STILL WATERS - a novel on the "lost towns" of the Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts.  Four towns…dismantled as an entire valley is prepared to be flooded. The past is being wiped clean, the present threatens, the future belongs to the fearless.

Three generations weave a tapestry of isolation and stubborn independence, battling the forces of nature, the Commonwealth, and each other in this family saga. A courageous girl becomes the guardian of her family’s heritage, and ultimately, the one to determine what happens next.

Beside the Still Waters is based on actual events that displaced four entire towns in central Massachusetts in the 1920s and 1930s for the construction of the Quabbin Reservoir. Families are torn apart, divided between those who protest the construction, those who give up and leave while they can, and those who help to build the dam that will flood the towns.

Return to the Swift River Valley, its charm and its pain, its mysteries and its lessons—to a community, a family, and a young woman in a race against time.

A TRAGIC TOAST TO CHRISTMAS - The Infamous 1919 Wood Alcohol Deaths in Chicopee, Massachusetts.  Non-fiction.  More than 100 people died of a companionable drink in several towns and cities in New England on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 1919, nearly half of them in the city of Chicopee, Massachusetts. How this came to happen, and even how it came to be forgotten are both intriguing aspects to the tragedy.

The story of the grisly incident of unknowingly ingesting poisonous wood alcohol and how it played out in one New England city might stand as a microcosm of the conflict created between the legal production and sale of alcohol, those who would prohibit it, and those who would do anything to profit from it, not only in the years up to 1919, but in the tumultuous decade that followed.

COMEDY AND TRAGEDY ON THE MOUNTAIN - 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts.  Non-fiction.  The book covers the history of summer theatre on Mt. Tom from1895 to 1965.  For some seventy years the playhouse created magic on the mountain above the city; from vaudeville, operetta, WPA-sponsored shows in the Great Depression, and its heyday from 1941 to 1962 with a resident repertory company called The Valley Players.  In the early 1960s, two new incarnations: The Casino-in-the-Park, and finally, the Mt. Tom Playhouse with touring packaged shows featuring well-known stars from television and movies.  Many stars of stage and screen, and many newcomers who would one day become stars, performed over several decades on Mt. Tom.  Through interviews, newspaper reviews, and nearly 250 photographs, relive their performances, and go backstage for personal experiences that were both comic and tragic, and enjoy again the excitement of opening night.

THE AMES MANUFACTURING COMPANY OF CHICOPEE, MASSACHUSETTS - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War.  Non-fiction.  The three articles that comprise this book tell different stories about the Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts, which played an important role as an arms manufacturer during the American Civil War.  Together, they make up a kind of composite of the Northern Civil War experience in the small, but dynamic, universe of a factory town.  We meet Nathan P. Ames and James T. Ames, brothers who founded the firm, the younger burdened with the responsibility after the tragic and grisly death of the older.

We meet two workers in the factory, one of whom, Charles Tracy, was a machinist who left his position to join the army, and came home without a leg—and was awarded the Medal of Honor.  He was cared for by Clara Barton--and comforted by President Abraham Lincoln on a visit to his hospital ward. The other man, Melzar Mosman, just a boy of nineteen, worked in the foundry department forging canon.  He also left to join the army, but after the war would become celebrated for forging bronze statuary, including a number of Civil War monuments.

We meet the townspeople of Chicopee, the minister who hid slaves on the local Underground Railroad, and the high school principal, who purchased a military substitute to fight in his place.  Later, he would become Governor of Massachusetts and the successful defense lawyer of the infamous Lizzie Borden.

 

And for mystery buffs, the Double V Mysteries Series set in New England in the late 1940s through the early 1950s (so far).

CADMIUM YELLOW, BLOOD RED - an heiress and an ex-con team up to solve a murder and discover much more.  Hartford, Connecticut, spring 1949.

SPEAK OUT BEFORE YOU DIE - the couple reunite to solve a mystery during a New Year's Eve house party in Hartford, 1949.

DISMOUNT AND MURDER - the now dynamic duo are involved in a scandal at a horse show in Litchfield, Connecticut, and Bar Harbor, Maine, summer 1950.

WHITEWASH IN THE BERKSHIRES - kidnapping and communist witch hunts lead to a discovery of murder in western Massachusetts, winter 1951.

MURDER AT THE SUMMER THEATER - a cast member goes missing at a playhouse on the Connecticut shore, summer 1951.

THE IRON LUNG MYSTERY - they are called to the Boston area to solve two mysterious deaths and find a family saga of treachery and treason,  summer 1951.

THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT KILLED - our sleuthing duo is brought to Chicopee, Massachusetts to investigate an old crime of embezzlement and scramble to prevent a murder. Christmas 1951.

All these books are available in eBook or print and can be found online at Barnes & Noble, Amazon,  Apple, and many other online shops.

Bookshop.org is "An online bookstore that financially supports local independent bookstores and gives back to the book community."  A portion of your online purchase will be donated to a fund supporting independent booksellers, and you can even request that the portion donated from your purchase will go to a specific, favorite local bookstore.  They also have a database on their site that will help you to find local independent bookstores in your area.

I'm very pleased to note that my print books are available from my page here at Bookshop.org 

For eBooks, please see my Shopify store page here.

For another option to purchase my print books, please see my Walmart page.

For more information and links to purchase, please visit my website:  JacquelineTLynch.com.

Thank you!

Half-price sale! Now through Sunday, December 1st!

My "Black Friday" Sale starts today & runs through this Sunday! 

 You'll get half off my eBooks when you visit my Shopify store (Books by Jacqueline T. Lynch). I have 18 eBooks up on the site. 

Happy Thanksgiving and an early Merry Christmas to you!

https://67db75-35.myshopify.com/

Thank you for reading!   

******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;

 States of Mind: New England, 

A Tragic Toast to Christmas -- The Infamous Wood Alcohol Deaths of 1919 in Chicopee, Mass.; as well as books on classic films and several novels.  Her Double V Mysteries series is set in New England in the early 1950s.  

TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

***********************

HAPPY THANKSGIVING - SEE MUGS, SHIRTS, AND MUCH MORE HERE!!!

Farewell to Barbara Bernard - Journalist, Theatre fan, and Friend to All - Holyoke, Massachusetts

Barbara Bernard, photo by Kathleen M. Lynch

The recent passing of Barbara Bernard (1927-2024), marks a milestone in western Massachusetts history, for most of us who live in this part of New England may find it difficult to imagine a world without her.

Originally hailing from North Adams in the northwest corner of the state, she attended Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley in the 1940s, and moved to Holyoke in 1950 with her husband, businessman George J. Bernard (who passed in 1998).  She hosted radio programs, and a long-time television show for the former WHYN-TV.  Three of the last of her several decades of work in the media included writing a column for the Springfield Republican newspaper.  (I think my favorite column of hers is when she wrote about being a college student and traveling by train with some friends -- back in the day when a sleeper car had curtained berths rather than separate rooms -- and she climbed into the wrong one. Remembering it still makes me laugh.)

Among her many activities included serving on several community and business boards, and she was honored with numerous awards in the course of her career, most recently in June she was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Among her passions was a love of theatre, and she supported many local theaters, and had interviewed a number of actors and actresses on her television program -- which prompted me to interview her as a source for my book, Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain - 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Barbara (she refused my attempts to call her "Mrs. Bernard") was gracious, informative, and quite funny.  Her love for one particular group that performed on the mountain -- The Valley Players, and her friendship with several people associated with that troupe, moved her to loan them her clothes for costumes, her furniture for the sets -- and on one memorable occasion, herself.  She took a small part in the musical comedy, The Boy Friend in 1961.  There's a photo of her with the cast in my book, and another photo of her on the set of her TV show interviewing visiting actor Van Johnson.

This enthusiasm illustrates a lovely zest for life and a sense of adventure.  Perhaps these were secrets to her longevity.

Moreover, her generosity extended to me: she wrote the foreword to the book, most of which I will reprint below.

When it came time to launch the book at a program at the Holyoke Public Library, she not only attended but also spoke at the event.  Her kindness knew no bounds.

I was happy to chat with her at a few other social functions over the years, but I was a very minor cast member in the cast of thousands in her life, and I hope someday someone who knew her really well will write her story.  I wish she had written it herself, but I think perhaps she was far more interested in other people.  

Here then is a part of the foreword she wrote to Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain:

Jacqueline T. Lynch & Barbara Bernard, 

photo by Kathleen M. Lynch

When Jacqueline Lynch interviewed me in 2015 about my memories of Holyoke’s Valley Players, I told her “the Valley Players was such a vital part of my life I died a little when it finally closed.”  That may have sounded a little dramatic but I really did lose something so special.

My enjoyment of live performances began as a child in North Adams with parents, aunts and uncles, all theatre and concert enthusiasts.  Not only did I get to see Broadway shows at an age where I probably didn’t understand what was going on in the cabin in Tobacco Road, but live theatre was in full swing in nearby Pittsfield and Stockbridge with the Berkshire Theatre Group, the Colonial Theater and Fitzpatrick Main Stage.  As a college student at Mount Holyoke, I had heard in nearby Holyoke, an industrial city much like my hometown, there was a summer theater called The Valley Players.  I was at home working during summers so during those years I never saw a production there.

Knowing there was The Valley Players in Holyoke probably saved my life in 1950.  There I go being dramatic again, but my husband and I, married in 1948 after my college graduation, lived in a suburb of Pittsfield where we both worked and we were in an area where live performances prevailed.  I still recall seeing Mady Christians in a play and Koussevitzky conducting at Tanglewood.  Our life was absolutely perfect and when we bought a business which required us to move to Holyoke, the one bright spot was remembering there was a great summer theater, The Valley Players. 

We began to go to the plays our first summer and never once missed a performance.  In a short time my Pittsfield career in radio brought me into the same one in the Paper City and eventually into television.  At one time or another all the actors and actresses, as well as Jean and Carlton Guild, the founders of The Valley Players, were guests on my programs.  Interviews were delightful and because all of the actors lived in various rented rooms in private homes in Holyoke they appreciated visiting with us in our air conditioned house, with our little girls and our dog giving them a sense of home away from home.

Our wardrobes were available to the players to borrow if they needed specific outfits for specific parts, and when Ruby Holbrook, then the wife of Hal, was pregnant she borrowed my maternity clothes.  Many summer players brought fame to this area perhaps, with Hal Holbrook who created Mark Twain Tonight!  There was not a member of the audience that opening who did not acknowledge that we had seen something which would take the world of theatre by storm.  Hal reprised the role many times through the years, updating it a little, and once again bringing a full audience to its feet with applause when he returned to Holyoke to present it as a fundraiser for the efforts to bring live theatre back to Holyoke with the Victory Theater project.

Fortunately, our area abounds in excellent all-season live theatre, but for those who love it so, there is never enough.  Of course as a resident of Holyoke I feel a city is that much richer if it has its own live summer theatre and The Valley Players truly made Holyoke a more exciting city.  There are so many memories, such as Mountain Park always saving its fireworks display to coincide with intermission of the plays, and the refreshment stand serving crispy clear-cold “birch beer,” and never a play produced to which one would feel uncomfortable bringing one’s grandmother, teenage child, or minister.

The Valley Players was a unique part of Holyoke history and certainly in my life, which makes being elderly not as unpleasant as it would have been without seventy years of remarkable summer theatre.

Barbara was 97 years old.  Requiescat in pace.

******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   

Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;

 States of Mind: New England, 

A Tragic Toast to Christmas -- The Infamous Wood Alcohol Deaths of 1919 in Chicopee, Mass.; as well as books on classic films and several novels.  Her Double V Mysteries series is set in New England in the early 1950s.  

TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Upcoming talk on Mt. Tom Playhouse - Holyoke, Massachusetts

I'll be giving on a talk on my book, Comedy and Tragedy on theMountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts, at the South Hadley Senior Center, 45 Dayton Street, South Hadley, Mass., next Tuesday, February 7, 2023, at 5:30 p.m.  A slide presentation of several photos from the book will accompany the talk.

The book covers the history of summer theatre on Mt. Tom from 1895 to 1965.  Many stars of stage and screen, and many newcomers who would one day become stars, performed over several decades on Mt. Tom.

******************

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Hal Holbrook on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts

Beloved memories and tributes pour forth as we note the recent passing of actor Hal Holbrook, perhaps most famous for the one-man show he created: “Mark Twain Tonight!”  He first achieved his actor’s union Equity card working for a noted summer theater on top of Mt. Tom, in Holyoke, Massachusetts in the early 1950s.  The ramshackle wooden playhouse was called, grandly, “The Casino.”  The resident troupe was The Valley Players.

Though their name paid tribute to the region of the Pioneer Valley, that broad swath of history and dinosaur tracks that comprise that section of the Connecticut River valley, the playhouse was actually on the grounds of an amusement park…on the top of a mountain…at the edge of a factory town.  No scenic shoreline summer barn, but a working, vibrant company in a glorified shack in as unlikely a place for traditional New England summer theatre as one might find. 
 
Holbrook and his first wife, Ruby were members of the company for a few years in the early 1950s.  In 1957 he returned as a guest to open the season with his show on Mark Twain, performing it in its full-length version for the first time.
 
The following passages are from my book, Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts.
 
We begin with Holbrook’s own recollections from his memoir:
 
While The Firebrand was playing eight performances, Monday through Saturday, we were also rehearsing Goodbye My Fancy to open the following Monday.  While Fancy played its eight performance schedule we’d rehearse the next play, and so on down the twelve-week summer season.  We rehearsed five hours a day, but only two hours on matinee days, Wednesdays and Saturdays, and we learned the lines at night after the evening’s performance.  Jean and Carlton’s rambling old home became our clubhouse, where there was close companionship and plenty of beer on ice.  We cued each other over and over until we had nailed those pages of lines into our brains.  Sleep was the only thing that was rationed.
 
In an on-camera interview for the locally produced television documentary, Mountain Park Memories, Mr. Holbrook recalled,
 
You had to learn all new lines.  A new play…I can’t even believe  today what  we  did.   You’d stay up till 2 o’clock working real hard on your lines.  You’d go back, you’re trying to get six, seven hours sleep.  Get up, rehearse all day, do the show again at night, then learn the lines in the middle of the night for the next.  And you do that every night, every day, week after week.  And it took spirit…
 
Mr. Holbrook’s chapter in his memoir, Harold, on The Valley Players is filled with delightful reminiscences of specific plays.  He would receive his first featured role for The Valley Players in Candlelight in late August.
 
 The Valley Players managers noted of Holbrook in a program at the end of the 1953 season:
 
Admirable actor as he was from the outset in 1951, his work has broadened and deepened and humanized as season after season unfolded.  One of the greatest rewards of summer-theater management is to see a fine actor mature in ever-greater and greater achievements.  All that we can provide is the opportunity: the credit for making the most of it belongs to the actor.  Mr. Holbrook, we believe, will go far in the world of theater…
 
The local press had equally warm thoughts that summer towards the acting company:
 
The Valley Players have made this community a richer place in which to live during the summer season.  They’ve made for us a happy feeling that they belong to us…  The Valley Players themselves, as persons, make a happy factor in our community life.  A group with high standards as individuals, people you wish you might know better and still be able to invest them with the glamour that they lay upon us.  We could wish we might show ourselves as hosts eager to do them honor, we thank Carlton and Jean Guild for choosing to settle into our Holyoke life and for wanting to stay with us…
 
 In 1954 Hal Holbrook went to New York and had a regular job on the radio soap opera, The Brighter Day.  He did regional theatre, and appeared in clubs in New York with skits on some new material he had worked up himself – on the nineteenth century humorist Mark Twain.  It would be his making as an actor.  He performed his Mark Twain persona on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show with Steve Allen on television, and by the end of the decade, would debut a full-length one-man show on Twain—at The Valley Players as a special guest performer in 1957.
 
Mr. Holbrook notes from his autobiography, Harold: 
 
On June 6, just before heading to Holyoke, I got another appearance on NBC’s Tonight Show with Jack Lescoulie as host.  Would that help me fill the big open-sided Mountain Park Casino in Holyoke?  I wondered.
 
Mark Twain Tonight!, presented at Holyoke in its first full-length version, was a career-making event for Hal Holbrook.  It opened The Valley Players’ sixteenth season.  The reviews were fabulous.
 
From Louise Mace of the Springfield Union:
 
“…a unique and rewarding program…in all life, so it seemed, there was Samuel Langhorne Clemens himself, complete with immaculate, comfortably wrinkled white suit, brisk red tie, drooping white mustache, ample white headpiece, and the inevitable cigar…a re-creation of a man and a mind in a deeply kneaded personification.”
 
From the Daily Hampshire Gazette:
 
His portrayal is both a science and an art. He has paid scrupulous attention to detail, from the shuffling walk to the twinkle in his eye.  Hal Holbrook never draws a breath on stage—it is Mark Twain even when he tells a story requiring the dialect and mannerisms of three or four additional characters.  A remarkable piece of showmanship, Mark Twain, Tonight at the Casino through Saturday merits your attendance.
 
The Holyoke Transcript-Telegram called it “a fascinating artistic masterpiece…the young Mr. Holbrook, remembered as the company’s handsome leading man a few year ago, is dropped from mind the instant Mark Twain enters the stage…”
 
 Barbara Bernard, who attended the opening night performance, remembers:
 
I thought: this is going to fall flat on its ear, or it’s going to be something so different.  Well, it was—and it was magnificent.  He came out in that rumpled white suit.  Oh, he was terrific.
 
William Guild recalls:
 
It took him two hours to put on that makeup.  You know, back then you had to use putty and all kinds of stuff that they can do so easily now.  But I mean he was late twenties or maybe thirty.  But I used to drive him up to the theater three hours before the performance for the week that he was doing it, and we would sit in the dressing room while he did makeup, and talk.  I have very fond memories of that.  He was kind of like an uncle in a way.
 
In less than two years, Holbrook’s one-man show would be a smash on Broadway.

(Note, the above photo is of Holbrook as Twain as he preformed it in 1957 on Mt. Tom.  Courtesy Holyoke Public Library History Room and Archives.)
 
******

For your copy of Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts, please see this universal link for the eBook available at Barnes & Noble, Apple, and a variety of other online shops.

For the print book and also eBook, please see this link to Amazon.

I hope you enjoy it.  For more of my books on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Kobo, and a variety of other online shops, please see my website here:  www.JacquelineTLynch.com.

Selling my books at a Holiday Bazaar - Chicopee, Massachusetts

I'll be selling my books this coming Thursday evening, November 15th in a special event sponsored by the Greater Chicopee Chamber of Commerce.  The first-ever Holiday Bazaar & Raffle will be held at the Portuguese American Club at 149 Exchange Street, Chicopee, Massachusetts from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

A variety of vendors will be there, along with food tasting, a cash bar, and music.  My brother John, who illustrates some children's picture books we've published together, and I will be pleased to meet you.  Stop by our table and say hello!

A Celebration of Mt. Tom - at the MAP Gallery, Easthampton, Massachusetts

Join me in Easthampton at the MAP (Mill Arts Project) Gallery this Saturday, July 14th for a celebration of Mt. Tom in art, natural history, theatre...and ice cream.

I'll be there to meet and greet with my book on theatre on the mountain - Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Join us for --

“The Mountain and Mother Nature”

A father and son exhibit of oil pastels by Ken Gagne and sculptures by Matt Gagne creating an entertaining and thought provoking experience traveling over Mt. Tom witnessing Mother Nature’s power to create, destroy and preserve the beauty of this local resource. 

Opening Reception

Saturday, July 14^th 2018

5:00 pm – 8:00 pm

@

The MAP Gallery

in

 The Eastworks Building in Easthampton

Also featuring:

·              Arcadia Sanctuary

·              Jacqueline T. Lynch – local author of  “Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain”

·              Mt. Tom Ice Cream

MAP Gallery in the Eastworks building, 116 Pleasant Street, Easthampton, Massachusetts.

Easthampton City Arts / Easthampton Cultural Council

Talk on my book on Mt. Tom Summer Theatre - South Hadley, Massachusetts

I will be giving on a talk on my book, Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts, at the South Hadley Public Library, Wednesday, June 27th at 6:30 p.m.  A slide presentation of several photos from the book will accompany the talk.

The book covers the history of summer theatre on Mt. Tom from1895 to 1965.  For some seventy years the playhouse created magic on the mountain above the city; from vaudeville, operetta, WPA-sponsored shows in the Great Depression, and its heyday from 1941 to 1962 with a resident repertory company called The Valley Players.  In the early 1960s, two new incarnations: The Casino-in-the-Park, and finally, the Mt. Tom Playhouse with touring packaged shows featuring well-known stars from television and movies.  Many stars of stage and screen, and many newcomers who would one day become stars, performed over several decades on Mt. Tom.  Through interviews, newspaper reviews, and nearly 250 photographs, relive their performances, and go backstage for personal experiences that were both comic and tragic, and enjoy again the excitement of opening night.

Save the Date! - Celebration of Mt. Tom in art, literature, science, and ice cream! - Easthampton, Massachusetts

Save the Date

The MAP Gallery shines a spotlight

on:

“The Mountain and Mother Nature”

A father and son exhibit of oil pastels by Ken Gagne and sculptures by Matt Gagne creating an entertaining and thought provoking experience traveling over Mt. Tom witnessing Mother Nature’s power to create, destroy and preserve the beauty of this local resource. 

Opening Reception

Saturday, July 14^th 2018

5:00 pm – 8:00 pm

@

The MAP Gallery

in

 The Eastworks Building in Easthampton

Also featuring:

·              Arcadia Sanctuary

·              Jacqueline T. Lynch – local author of  “Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain”

·              Mt. Tom Ice Cream

Easthampton City Arts / Easthampton Cultural Council