Brown County Bookshelf
~ by Julia Pearson
The narrative of Brown County is written in several voices. All locals and visitors will find that having a bookshelf devoted to Brown County titles will provide many mental vacations.
For books to be read aloud to the driver by passengers in the family car, Hoosiers are lucky that loved storyteller, Henry“ Hank” Swain, published several books. Good for a chuckle or prompting listeners’ and readers’ own renditions, go to Hank’ s Tall Tales and Harmless Exaggerations from Brown County and Beyond. For evenings around the campfire, put away the cell phones— or use them to illuminate the pages— and thumb through Leaves for the Raking, which includes many stories originally published in this magazine. Anyone who is homesick for Hank’ s philosophizing and thoughtful delivery will want his books.
Daytrippers will benefit from having a copy of Tales and Trails of Brown County, Indiana in the glove compartment of their car. Lightweight and packable, this little gem has usable maps for automobiles and bicyclists wanting to nose around all 20 by 16 miles of Brown County. The tales enliven many destination points, with beckoning names like: Whipporwill Hollow, Bear Wallow, Scarce O’ Fat Ridge, Shake Rag Hollow and Milk Sack Bottoms.
Through the seasons, several volumes can be rotated from the bookshelf to the coffee table. 175 Years of Brown County: the people, the life, the history,
edited by Sherri Cullison, is a beautiful hardback compilation of black and white photographs, with essays written by its own citizens, and issued by the local newspaper the Brown County Democrat. Enjoyed by people who like to dream backwards and forwards in time, the timeless faces smiling up from the pages will engage readers of all ages.
The Artists of Brown County by Lyn Letsinger-Miller is a resource that covers the laps of two readers sitting next to each other on the sofa( and creating special memories for the grandparent sharing it with a grandchild). For lifelong learners wanting to expand their knowledge of the individual artists of the Brown County Art Colony, this book can be ready on a side table with a bookmark to be advanced as each biographical sketch is absorbed with the reproductions of the artworks fixed in mind.
Another favorite is the story of T. C. Steele and his wife, Selma: The House of the Singing Winds, written by Selma N. Steele, Theodore L. Steele, and Wilbur D. Peat. It’ s a very human picture of this couple, their marriage, making a home from the ground-up, and their devotion to art. It describes the discipline of producing masterpieces by the painter and the open home maintained and provided by Selma.
Brown County has its own ghost town. Elkinsville, named for one of the earliest settlers, William Elkins, grew into a prosperous town in a remote part of the county. In the early 1960s, under the authorization
36 Our Brown County • Sept./ Oct. 2023