The Country of Pointed Firs

A nameless writer has come to Dunnet Landing, a small town on the coast of Maine, for the summer in order to finish her manuscript.

Compared to the hectic pace of the city she's left behind, she finds herself absorbed in the slow rhythms of her new daily life. Her observations of the residents of Dunnet Landing – their loves, their fights, their occupation with sky and sea and land, their tall tales, and quiet secrets – comprise The Country of the Pointed Firs. It is a novel seemingly made from the very fabric of community. Jewett’s beautiful, delicate descriptions and her wonderfully natural dialogue bring the whole town and its many inhabitants to life.

About the Authors

Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet. As a young child she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and encouraged to take frequent nature walks. Today she is best known for her nature writing and regional works set along the coast of Maine. At nineteen, Jewett had a short story published in The Atlantic. She is the author of Deephaven(1877), Old Friends and New (1879), Country By-Ways (1881), A White Heron and Other Stories (1886), and A Native of Winby and Other Tales (1893). Her novels include A Country Doctor(1884) and The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896). For most of her adult life, Jewett lived with Annie Adams Field in what was then termed a 'Boston marriage'.

Brandy Jensen is a writer and editor. She lives in New Orleans with her two dogs. Stephanie Insley Hershinow is an associate professor of English at Baruch College and the Graduate Center, CUNY. She lives in Jersey City with her family.

Allison Miriam Smith is a co-founder of Smith & Taylor Classics. She is also an Acquiring Editor and Publishing & Publicity Manager for Unnamed Press. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English & Creative Writing from the University of Southern California where she was an assistant curator for the USC Doheny Library George Cassady Lewis Carroll Special Collection. She later went on to earn a Masters in 18th & 19th c. Literature from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, working nights at the library. Before Unnamed Press, she was a bookseller at Skylight Books in Los Angeles, CA.

Brandon Taylor is the author of the novels The Late Americans and < Real Life, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, and named a New York TimesBook Review Editors’ Choice and a Science + Literature Selected Title by the National Book Foundation. His collection Filthy Animals, a national bestseller, was awarded The Story Prize and shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. He is the 2022-2023 Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. He is an Acquiring Editor at Unnamed Press and co-founder of Smith & Taylor Classics.