By Jennifer Falvey, Standard Correspondent
A new edition of The Farm in the Green Mountains, by Alice Herdan-Zuckmayer, has been released by New York Review Books, which includes an insightful introduction by Elisa Albert. The book is an inspiring memoir detailing the lives of World War II era, German refugees, Alice Herdan-Zuckmayer and her husband, Carl Zuckmayer who came to America, tried New York City (“We went everywhere and did everything but never found ourselves”) and Los Angeles (“Carl tried without success to find a gold mine in Hollywood”) but did not feel at home until they came to Vermont, as guests of American journalist, Dorothy Thompson.
The book offers readers an interesting historical perspective of Vermont during the war years, as well as an inspiring narrative on the indomitable human instinct to survive.
Alice Herdan-Zuckmayer and Carl Zuckmayer were intellectuals born to privilege. He was a writer. She was studying medicine. They were forced to flee Germany on account of the popularity of Carl’s political satires; the Nazis had him in their crosshairs and were soon to confiscate the Zuckmayer’s home and belongings.
They came to America, floundered for a while and then followed Dorothy Thompson to Barnard. Dorothy gave them a head start by finding them a temporary home and stocking it with food and furniture, but the Zuckmayers’ did the rest.
They were immigrants, war refugees with heavy accents and European habits but with true Vermont grit they carved out a life for themselves at a farm, which they rented (called Backwoods Farm) from a Vermonter named Joe Ward.
Alice describes Joe as “a big, lean, white-haired man….
“He regarded us with a look that we often met later. The look meant: queer, strange, crazy people. We didn’t know for a long time that they considered us odd characters from the beginning.” The winters were the greatest challenge. Alice writes, “I was afraid of the dark and of the stillness, of the snow which dampened all sounds and concealed life and movement alike.” Alice and Carl knew nothing of farming but survival served as their inspiration, and so they studied every pamphlet and tapped every resource (particularly the USDA) until they became competent chicken farmers who also owned goats and pigs. They came to know their neighbors and to be known by their neighbors through the telephone. Party lines were the norm back then. Alice describes sharing the line as, “being pulled along by the same towrope.”
The farm grew and succeeded as their local friendships developed and deepened. Carl’s writing career, which had been extremely successful in Germany, ebbed away and Alice’s grew. This book is a compilation of letters home to Germany. It was originally written in German and has been a best-seller in Europe. The English translation by Ida H. Washington is flawless.
The contemporary reader will come away feeling inspired by the Zuckmayers’ perseverance and with renewed gratitude for all of the amenities (like heat) which we now take for granted.
Editor’s Note: A correction to the last name “Thompson” instead of “Parker,” was made to the original article published in the April 27, 2017 edition of the Vermont Standard.