R. F. D.: Charles Allen Smart

Charles Allen Smart was a New York novelist and prep-school teacher when he inherited his aunt's farm in 1935. He and his wife moved into the rustic stone farmhouse in remote southern Ohio, determined to combine their lives as working farmers with their literary-intellectual life and political progressivism. Smart conveys the feel of their lives at a time when "living in the country" was a meaningful distinction in America. RFD (derived from the old rural-free delivery postal designation) was a best-seller in 1938; this new paperback edition features an insightful foreword by noted Ohio farm writer Gene Logsdon. Told with sensitivity, gusto, and a fierce honesty, RFD ultimately is about one couple's earliest, joyful attempt to live meaningful lives.