Okay, Let's Try It Again

University Press of New England, 1999. Trade paperback. Like New. Each of popular raconteur Willem Lange's new stories features an unusual individual he has encountered at some point in his variegated life. We meet camp cook George Lamb, best pancake chef ever; Jay Lewis, the "ugliest-acting man I've ever known"; Mrs. Sandwick, the sixth grade teacher "who taught us far more than we thought we could handle"; the prissy housemaster, Mr. Auchincloss; Mary O, the cleaning lady whose well-meant efforts invariably led to "demolishing our home and peace of mind"; and Doc, the apparently inept, but kindly scoutmaster, who met every disappointment with an enthusiastic, "Okay, let's try it again." In 1981, Lange began writing a weekly column, Yankee Notebook, which appears in several New England newspapers. He's a commentator for Vermont Public Radio and the host of New Hampshire Public Television's weekly show Windows to the Wild. His annual readings of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol began in 1975 and continue unabated. He's published nine books and received an Emmy Award for one of his films on New Hampshire Public Television. In 1973 Will founded the Geriatric Adventure Society, a group of outdoor enthusiasts whose members have skied the 200-mile Alaska Marathon, climbed in Alaska, the Andes, and Himalayas, bushwhacked on skis through northern New England, and paddled rivers north of the Arctic Circle.