There is a quote on a bulletin board outside my town’s Unitarian church that I see every morning on my walk: You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore. —William Faulkner. A few days ago, a book landed on my desk that led me to reflect on Faulkner’s words and how so many of us, in many ways and for many reasons, have sought new horizons.
Published this October, the book is titled Home Now. In it, author Cynthia Anderson follows refugees from Africa, more than 5,000 from Somalia, who fled civil war to settle in the town of Lewiston, Maine. While she was still reporting, we published her article “City of Hope,” which told the story of these “new Mainers” [March/April 2017]. Few things give an editor more pride than when a magazine story leaves its own shoreline and expands and deepens and becomes literature.
Similarly, Rachel Slade’s book Into the Raging Sea began in these pages as an article about the 2015 sinking of the container ship El Faro after it sailed into the path of Hurricane Joaquin, taking the lives of all 33 onboard [“A Fatal Mistake,” November/December 2016]. I will be onstage with Rachel at the Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on November 5. Through her words, the men and women on board that ship will never be forgotten.
Seeking new horizons can also mean casting off one identity and taking on a new one. What does not change is the need for courage and a belief in yourself. As you pore through our Editors’ Choice Food Awards and special gift guide [“Handmade for the Holidays”], I hope you will enjoy discovering the stories just below the surface. Many of the artisans and crafters that are spotlighted in these pages found their success after starting over: a fashion designer becomes a confectioner, a PhD scientist becomes a fine woodworker.
Finally, for the past few years I have written here about Edie Clark, Yankee’s longtime columnist, whose “Mary’s Farm” dispatches about her life in rural New Hampshire created the kind of loyal readership that writers dream about but seldom know. Today she lives in a single room in a rehabilitation center about 20 minutes from her former farm. Notes and cards boost her morale and give her sparks of happiness and even hope that the day will come when a new piece of creative writing will spill onto her paper. Keep them coming here to Yankee, and we take them in little piles and read them to Edie, letting her remember how her special gift once entered our readers’ lives.
And thanks to all of you holding this issue for bringing us into your homes this holiday season. We will never lose sight of that connection.
Mel Alleneditor@yankeemagazine.com
Mel Allen
Mel Allen is the fifth editor of Yankee Magazine since its beginning in 1935. His first byline in Yankee appeared in 1977 and he joined the staff in 1979 as a senior editor. Eventually he became executive editor and in the summer of 2006 became editor. During his career he has edited and written for every section of the magazine, including home, food, and travel, while his pursuit of long form story telling has always been vital to his mission as well. He has raced a sled dog team, crawled into the dens of black bears, fished with the legendary Ted Williams, profiled astronaut Alan Shephard, and stood beneath a battleship before it was launched. He also once helped author Stephen King round up his pigs for market, but that story is for another day. Mel taught fourth grade in Maine for three years and believes that his education as a writer began when he had to hold the attention of 29 children through months of Maine winters. He learned you had to grab their attention and hold it. After 12 years teaching magazine writing at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, he now teaches in the MFA creative nonfiction program at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Like all editors, his greatest joy is finding new talent and bringing their work to light.
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