The Gate in the Garden Wall

Sam Pickering is a native of Tennessee. He has written more than thirty books, but doesn't consider himself so much a writer as Vicki's husband, their children's father, a neighbor, and a white-haired guy who mows the lawn, rakes leaves, and shovels snow. He writes about what he bumps against and what bumps against him. He is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, and although he "loves" the South and his memories of growing up in Nashville, he has lived most of his life in New England, teaching at the University of Connecticut. "Sam is," a friend who lives around the corner says, "our Montaigne, always around, always garrulous, and always writing."