From "The Blue Caterpillar": "Sixty-seven girls and one adult danced in Alice. Eliza was the Queen of Hearts, and I was the Blue Caterpillar. I was excited. Never had I been in a ballet. Fifty-two years is a long time to be a chrysalis, and I was eager to split the pupal shell, pump up my wings, and flutter through an auditorium." From a review of Trespassing : "Reading Pickering . . . is like taking a walk with your oldest, wittiest friend."―Smithsonian "Each of these pieces begins with a small, highly personal observation, and from there Pickering (often quite literally) ‘takes a walk’ . . . exploring the natural world, the world of family and friends, and―most vividly―the world of ideas. Always, of course, that Pickering voice is at the center . . . witty, self-deprecating, funny, clear-eyed, no nonsense, and distinctly his."―Jay Parini, Middlebury College "Readers will finish Pickering’s book. They will do so in a sitting."―Richard Brantley, University of Florida Movie-goers know him as the inspiration for the lead role in Dead Poets’ Society (as played by Robin Williams), but thousands of devoted readers also know Sam Pickering for the wit, keen insight, and lively prose style exhibited here and in seven previous volumes of familiar essays. In the title piece, Pickering is the Blue Caterpillar, a role he is asked to play in his daughter’s elementary school production of Alice in Wonderland, a role which strikes Pickering―and will strike his readers―as wonderfully appropriate. Funny and moving, these essays seem born of the murky inkling a caterpillar must have that things are changing; it is to the changes, especially the small ones, that Pickering attends. Language changes, ideas of family change, Republicans change, the South changes. In "There Have Been Changes," Pickering remarks that "domestic change is cyclical and wifely." In other essays his two sons suddenly seem distant, and his daughter acquires a new talent at summer camp: "becoming the best mooner in the cabin." Pets―tadpoles and salamanders, dogs, hamsters, kittens, and a baby squirrel―join and take their leave of the Pickering household. In "Down" his wife decides (very much against his wishes) to pierce her ears. Fifteen hundred miles away, an uncle grows old and needs caretaking. Pickering himself grows older. And of course, the seasons change. Pickering’s chrysalis harbors a true naturalist. Seeing and describing the world around him as if for the first time, he watches for "emblems of a decent life, a slow life in which little things matter: pets, wildflowers beneath mountain ridges, friends in wheelchairs, family and community, those soft, dancing dodos and bumblebees over whom everybody should watch, and watch carefully." Pickering watches carefully, writes engagingly, and in the process teaches us that the world is always new.

The Blue Caterpillar and Other Essays

Literature & Fiction

Pickering, Samuel F.

United States

University Press of Florida

Essays look at the academic world, nature, shopping malls, social pretensions, the past, and the author's childhood

The Right Distance

History & Criticism

Univ of Georgia Pr

A history of children's literature from the mid-1700s to the early part of the 1800s. Notes on each chapter and index. x, 214 pages. cloth, dust jacket. 8vo.

Moral Instruction and Fiction for Children, 1749-1820

Children's Books

John Locke and Children's Books in 18th Century England

Univ of Tennessee Pr

1985 University Press of New England trade paperback, Samuel Pickering Jr. (INDIAN AND JUVENILE NOVELS, 1865-1900). Humorous essays look at college rituals, turtles, the academic job market, books, reading, possessions, and fame. - Amazon

A Continuing Education

Reference

Writing, Research & Publishing Guides

Univ of Connecticut

Still Life

Words, Language & Grammar

Univ Pr of New England

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Iowa City, Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 1988. 1st Edition, Hardbound, 8vo (about 8'' to 9.5'' tall), 198 pages.

May Days

Essays & Correspondence

Univ of Iowa Pr

Describing the early years of his childhood, the author reveals what made him a successful teacher and writer.

A Comfortable Boy: A Memoir

Biographies & Memoirs

Memoirs

Mercer University Press

In A Tramp's Wallet, Sam Pickering spends six months roaming Australia and New Zealand, tramping landscapes pocked by sheep stations, mountains rip-rapped by scree, art galleries and bakeries, and always libraries. Pickering lectures on a cruise ship, travels the Murray River on a paddle wheeler, and rides the train from Sydney to Perth.
 The saunterings of one of America's best and most popular essayists stretch the seams of A Tramp's Wallet, the coins of the page being six months spent alone in Australia and New Zealand. Far from the hoes and saws that prune days into convention, life flourishes, and this book is weedy and rankly rich with thought and description. "Lord," St. Odo of Cluny said on his deathbed, "I have loved the beauty of thy house." In A Tramp's Wallet, Sam Pickering records his love of that house, and, if truth must out, his love for a few neglected out buildings barns and backhouses, even the ramshakled huts of thought.

A Tramp's Wallet

Professionals & Academics

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