Castle Freeman Jr.

This article contains wording that promotes the subject in a subjective manner without imparting real information. Please remove or replace such wording and instead of making proclamations about a subject's importance, use facts and attribution to demonstrate that importance. (April 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Castle Freeman Jr. (born November 26, 1944^[1]) an American author. He is the award-winning^{[citation needed]} author of the acclaimed novel Go with Me, adapted into the film Blackway (2015) starring Anthony Hopkins and Julia Stiles. For 30 years he was a contributor to The Old Farmer's Almanac and is the author of four other novels, two short-story collections, as well as a major history of a Vermont township.^[2][3][4]

Castle Freeman Jr. was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1944, the son of an officer in the Army Air Corps. His family was from Illinois, and he grew up in Chicago. He studied at Columbia University School of General Studies graduating in 1968, and in 1969 married artist and designer Alice Chaffee. In 1972, they moved to Vermont,^[1][5][6] living in Newfane since 1975.^[7]

Freeman began writing on his arrival in Vermont. Although employed as an editor and proof-reader for book and magazine publishers, he has been a regular contributor to several periodicals including The Old Farmer's Almanac (1982-2011), Harrowsmith Country Life Magazine (1992-93), and Vermont Life Magazine (2009–2018). He has had four novels and two short-story collections published as well as a collection of essays and a history of Townshend, Vermont. He is also the author of fifty short-stories and over 100 essays and other non-fiction. Virtually all his writing concerns rural northern New England and Vermont in particular^[5]

His work has also appeared in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading.^[8]

His first novel Judgement Hill published in 1997 was according to Publishers Weekly, "an intricate first novel", "While the dialogue, rich in vernacular and quiet humor, is sometimes difficult to follow, Freeman uses it cleverly to reveal the complex motivations of his not-so-homespun characters...this occasionally overwritten fable brims with local color that conveys Freeman's deep feeling for the Vermont environment".^[9] Publishers Weekly were also positive about his next novel, My Life and Adventures, finishing their comments with "Although the book's momentum is sometimes hampered by flaccid historical tidbits, Freeman's witty and thoughtful observations are bound to charm".^[10] It was Castle Freeman's third novel Go With Me which found most acclaim, was republished in paperback by HarperCollins and received wide praise on both sides of the Atlantic.^[11] His novel All That I Have was praised by The Times: "It is impossible not to appreciate this spare, meditative and seamlessly crafted novel."^[12]

Castle Freeman's published work includes:^[13]

• Judgment Hill (1997)
• My Life and Adventures (2002)
• Go with Me (2008)
• All That I Have (2009)
• The Devil in the Valley (2015)^[14]
• Old Number Five (2018)
• Children of the Valley (2020)

• The Bride of Ambrose and Other Stories (1987)^[15]
• Round Mountain: Twelve Stories (2012)^[16]

• Spring Snow: The Seasons of New England from The Old Farmer's Almanac (1995) - Essay collection^[17]
• A Stitch In Time: Townshend, Vermont, 1753-2003 (non-fiction)^[18][19]

• Official website
• Castle Freeman Jr. interview
• Monday Interview: Castle Freeman Jr.
• "The Next Thing on Benefit" Online short-story from the New England Review