[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 111 (Thursday, July 31, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8492-S8493]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO PETER JENNISON

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I rise today to honor a very special 
Vermonter. Peter Jennison has devoted much of his life to documenting 
our wonderful State.
  Among his many accomplishments, Peter has authored ``Vermont: An 
Explorer's Guide,'' ``Roadside History of Vermont,'' numerous Vermont 
magazine articles and reviews, and also ``Vermont on $500 A Day (More 
Or Less)''--and for those of you who are lucky enough to have visited 
Vermont you understand the tongue-in-cheek title of the last book.
  His skill and talent for writing and history earned him the Vermont 
Book Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. As 
someone who has enjoyed many of his books and magazine articles, I know 
that this award is well deserved.
  Peter is a longtime special friend of mine as is his wife Jane and I 
wanted the Senate to know about them.
  The Rutland Herald recently ran an excellent piece on Peter Jennison. 
I ask unanimous consent that the article appear immediately following 
my statement.

             [From the Rutland Daily Herald, July 10, 1997]

    A ``Born Again Vermonter'' Reflects on A Life Spent Among Books

                         (By Melissa MacKenzie)

       At 75 nothing shocks Peter S. Jennison except the prices of 
     books and hotels.
       ``I can remember when a suite at the Plaza cost $10 a 
     day,'' he said with a chuckle on the morning of his big 
     birthday, July 2 was celebrated quietly, followed by a family 
     gathering at the weekend. Jane Jennison, his wife of 51 
     years, was cheerful but bedridden with emphysema, knee 
     surgery and two hip replacements. Otherwise life appeared to 
     be going tolerably well in the 1840 brick cottage on the hill 
     above the Taftsville General Store.
       Jennison, a ``born again'' Vermonter, who grew up in 
     Swanton and then lived many years in New York only to return 
     home again, is probably best known to the average reader as 
     one of the authors of ``Vermont: An Explorer's Guide'' and 
     the popular ``Roadside History of Vermont.''
       Others may recognize him as the dry, accurate and often 
     humorous reviewer of restaurants and inns for Vermont 
     Magazine. Or you may have seen his books in libraries, 
     including two novels set in Vermont, ``The Governor,'' 
     written in 1964, and ``The Mimosa Smokers,'' and a semi-
     serious guidebook called ``Vermont on $500 A Day (More or 
     Less).'' Two of his other books, ``History of Woodstock, 
     1890-1983,'' and ``Frederick Billings,'' written with Jane 
     Curtis and Frank Lieberman, reflect his historian side and 
     his lifelong interest in Vermont history.
       An affable observant man known for his quiet wit, Jennison 
     and his wife, Jane, founded Countryman Press, (now a part of 
     the giant W.W. Norton Publishing Company), in Woodstock in 
     1973. Or re-founded, you might say. The Jennisons revived the 
     imprint, dormant since the 1930s, which had in the past 
     published such greats as Stephen Vincent Benet and Edgar Lee 
     Masters, and launched their own version, including a new, 
     colophon designed by Vermont artist Sabra Field.
       Success came quickly, although it was hard work. Peter and 
     Jane worked from their kitchen table to produce Countryman's 
     first book, a guidebook called ``Wonderful Woodstock.'' and 
     only three years later published its first bestseller, 
     ``Backyard Livestock,'' by Steven Thomas, a book that is 
     still selling well today. By this time several veteran 
     editors and marketing people had joined the little 
     enterprise, among them, the late Keith Jennison, Peter's 
     brother, author of the humorous ``Yup * * * Nope and Other 
     Vermont Dialogues'', and three men who would eventually run 
     the company, Louis Kannenstine, Christopher Lloyd and Carl 
     Taylor.
       The idea was to pay careful attention to the selection of 
     books, be willing to take a chance on a writer; and to take 
     pride in the way their books were designed. Said Jennison at 
     the time, ``Working this way is * * * a much more personal 
     kind of publishing that is possible elsewhere in the 
     conglomerate scene.'' It was a philosophy which saw little 
     Countryman become a David among the Goliaths.
       ``Countryman was like a woodstove. You had to keep adding 
     logs. Bit by bit we grew beyond our expectations. We didn't 
     have a master plan, it just happened. The more books, the 
     more momentum,'' Jennison said.
       The company operated from the Jennisons' home for the first 
     four years. Editing, billing and shipping continued to get 
     done at the kitchen table. Books were ferried to bookstores 
     in the back of a Toyota pickup truck. Next, Countryman moved 
     down the hill near the Taftsville General Store, where it 
     stayed until 1981 when it relocated to Woodstock and 
     constructed its own building on Route 4. Countryman Press 
     operated there until 1994. After the sale to W.W. Norton, the 
     staff relocated to Mt. Tom. The building is presently for 
     sale for $495,000.
       Selling to a big New York City publisher was ``an emotional 
     wrench, like selling the family farm, but I realized we had, 
     so to speak, survived the childhood and the adolescence of 
     the company, and now we had grown up and got married,'' said 
     Jennison philosophically.
       ``For a small publisher it was getting more and more 
     complicated and expensive to do business. The big wholesalers 
     and the chains are now dictating the rules of the game,'' he 
     added.
       ``Publishing has gotten to be part of the entertainment 
     industry. More people are buying more books, but because of 
     the star system that dominates the industry, a lot of new 
     writers are being deprived of an audience. There are still a 
     lot of smaller presses, but they don't have access to the 
     major markets,'' Jennison said.

[[Page S8493]]

       Another factor is the reliance of the big players on 
     computers and the industry's fixation on the bottom line.
       ``Unfortunately the buyers at Barnes and Noble and at 
     Ingram (the largest book distribution company in the U.S.) 
     are ruled by their computer records; how well an author sold 
     before, what type of book sold before, etc. I call it the 
     Bill Gates-is-God mentality,'' he said.
       Jennison, however, remains hopeful, ``I am optimistic 
     enough to think there will always be a large number of people 
     who would rather curl up with a book than a computer game. 
     The format of the book will be with us for a long time. It'll 
     go on,'' he said.
       In 1996 the Vermont Book Publishers Association awarded 
     Jennison a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions 
     to publishing.
       A sixth-generation Vermonter, born on a dairy farm in 
     Swanton, north of St. Albans, Jennison attended a one room 
     school until his parents packed him off to Philips Academy, 
     Andover. Next came Middlebury College, interrupted in his 
     junior year by World War II. Jennison served three years with 
     the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA, 
     as a code and ciphers specialist, decoding messages from U.S. 
     agents behind the lines in Germany, France and Norway, 
     Returning to Middlebury, he graduated with a degree in 
     American literature, married Jane, and began what was to 
     become a lifetime spent with books.
       Jennison worked first for ``Publishers Weekly'' as a 
     reviews editor and feature writer, and then went on to become 
     Assistant Director of the American Book Publishers Council. 
     In the 1960s, he served on the National Book Committee, a 
     non-profit citizens group promoting books and libraries, 
     similar to the Vermont Center for the Book, but on a national 
     scale. Under the auspices of the Ford Foundation he also 
     worked with fledgling publishing companies in Africa, the 
     Middle East and Asia, as well as serving on the panel for the 
     National Book Awards.
       ``The Natinal Book Awards weren't as high profile in the 
     sixties. We got a lot of local publicity, though, outside of 
     New York. Now, it's more like the Academy Awards,'' said 
     Jennison.
       The Jennisons returned to Vermont in 1971. I'd had enough 
     of New York and I was tired of being held hostage by the New 
     Haven Railroad,'' recalled Jennison, referring to his years 
     as a commuter from suburban Westport, Conn.
       Christina Tree, co-author of ``Vermont: An Explorer's 
     Guide,'' remembers the story a little differently. ``The way 
     I heard it, Peter came home one night after a hard day in the 
     city, wound up like a clock, and accidentally walked straight 
     off the patio into the family swimming pool, seersucker suit, 
     briefcase and all. He got out, sputtering, and yelled, ``That 
     does it. Jane, we're going back to Vermont.''
       Although he is now officially retired, Jennison continues 
     to write for ``Vermont Magazine'' and will work again with 
     Tree on the next edition of ``Vermont: An Explorer's Guide.''
       Countryman Press's ``The Explorer's Guide series'' started 
     in 1979. The first book was about Massachusetts, the home 
     state of Tree, a young travel writer at the Boston Globe. 
     Said Tree from her home in Cambridge, ``Peter hired me to 
     write the series. I wrote one on Massachusetts and one on 
     Maine. But the year I was to begin the one on Vermont, I had 
     some family difficulties, and Peter so-authored to help me 
     out.''
       The partnership was such a success the two have continued 
     co-writing the book ever since.
       ``We divided up the state,'' said Jennison. ``Now, when 
     it's time for a new edition, we switch sections and re-visit 
     old places and add new ones.''
       The guidebook is published every two years and has garnered 
     much praise for its accuracy and attention to historical 
     detail. The most recent edition came out in May, which means 
     that come the summer of 1998, Jennison and Tree will again 
     switch their sections and start trekking for the 1999 
     edition. Working off the previous edition on their computers, 
     the pair will meticulously re-check each entry, changing 
     phone numbers and prices where necessary adding names or 
     dropping them.
       Said Christina Tree, ``The depth of Peter's knowledge of 
     Vermont is huge. He's seen tremendous changes in the state, 
     and he's got an interesting perspective, returning to Vermont 
     at the time he did, after being away for so long. He 
     personifies a certain kind of aristocratic Vermonter, who's 
     very sophisticated and also very active and involved. He's 
     low-key and witty and generous. And of course he's a fabulous 
     writer. Somebody ought to do an oral biography of him.''

                          ____________________