Vandemark’s Folly

Every July 27, J. T. Vandemark sows turnips—and remembers the day he was born. An old rhyme turns the planting into a doorway to a childhood he can scarcely recall.

Now an old settler in Iowa, Vandemark is meant to write the history of his township, but his granddaughter Gertrude’s interest in family records draws him back to the beginning: a Dutch boy growing up in nineteenth-century New York. Under the rule of his domineering stepfather, John Rucker, young Jake is sent to work in a cotton mill at six, rising before dawn for hours at the machines while his mother tries to comfort him. His memories are wry, tender, and unsparing—and behind them lies the road that will carry him west. What will the boy endure before he can make a life of his own?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

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