(HOST) Commentator Tom Slayton says that in the novels of Howard Frank Mosher, the Northeast Kingdom is much more than just a location.
(SLAYTON) Howard Frank Mosher’s latest novel, On Kingdom Mountain, is a witty romantic comedy, in which bits and pieces of Vermont’s rich history are transformed by the author’s vivid wit and imagination into a suspenseful and humorous tale.
I’m always tempted to refer to Mosher’s novels as "tales" because they seem like folk tales to me – mythic, slightly outlandish, and
fraught with significance for today. And that’s probably because Mosher draws much of the raw material for his novels directly from his Northeast Kingdom neighbors – their lives and characters and the stories they tell.
On Kingdom Mountain is just such a tale, a picaresque yarn that somehow manages to combine a bank robbery, encroaching development, a Civil War riddle, and a hidden treasure – all in the service of a Northeast Kingdom love story.
The novel’s protagonists are two of Mosher’s most memorable characters: Miss Jane Hubbell Kinneson, a shotgun-toting schoolmarm known as the Duchess of Kingdom Mountain; and Henry Satterffield, aviator, adventurer, and sometime bank robber.
Honed by 50 years of unmarried independence, Miss Jane is fiesty, opinionated, and supremely sure of her right to direct all matters
pertaining to her beloved Kingdom Mountain. She likes an occasional slug of high-octane applejack and, when necessary, carries "Lady Justice," her trusty 20-gauge shotgun, to even the odds against her powerful adversaries.
In a recent talk, Howard Mosher, author of this delightful novel, said Miss Jane’s no-nonsense personality came from a favorite aunt, remembered from his childhood.
"Everyone’s seen that disclaimer on the first page of novels that says the characters are not based on real people," Mosher said.
"You’ll never see that disclaimer on a Howard Frank Mosher novel."
And in fact, elements from Mosher’s own experience as a teacher and outdoorsman in the Northeast Kingdom mingle freely with fragments of Vermont history and folklore in this and his other novels.
The prologue and underpinning for On Kingdom Mountain is a Civil War bank robbery clearly modeled on the St. Albans Raid of 1864. The new superhighway that threatens the wild sanctity of Kingdom Mountain seems a lot like the Interstate highway that has, in the last 20 years, linked the Northeast Kingdom with the outside world.
Mosher’s plot is driven by a search for the lost loot from the bank robbery and the looming disaster of the oncoming highway aimed at Kingdom Mountain. The book spins a merry, completely entertaining chase through the semi-mythical Kingdom County – courtroom scenes and backwoods encounters, a lonely ice-fishing episode, and a rough-and-tumble county fair.
The novel’s conclusion and an epilogue are satisfying but bittersweet, and Mosher clearly feels nostalgic for the days he knew in the Kingdom, before the coming of the Interstate.
Even so, I’m sure that we will have more captivating, Vermont-flavored novels from the pen of Howard Frank Mosher. And that’s a very good thing indeed. The Northeast Kingdom could have no truer chronicler, no better teller of tales.
Tom Slayton is editor-emeritus of Vermont Life magazine.