Henry Swain

Leaves for the Raking Henry Swain

The front cover shows the author in resting mode during the annual ritual of leaf raking on his Brown County, Indiana homestead. In this book he rakes together some of the leaves of his imagination, which have fallen over the years onto the printed page. His winter season is near at hand, and he wishes to gather the leaves before the first killing frost, lest the winter winds blow them beyond his last effort of recall. Like the raked leaves of autumn, this book is a gathering of parts. It is part autobiography, part history, some true stories, and some with exaggerations. There are moments of marginal wit, country observations, and a little poetry added for seasoning. The author has stacked these random parts into chapters for the holding, much the way he stacks his firewood between two trees to be seasoned for next year's burning. The reader can take a stick of wood from the pile, throw it on the fire, and then read the smoke to find the meaning. If the smoke is properly read, the author hopes the reader may also be warmed in the process. He also hopes the contents of the chapters have been properly seasoned and are ready for consumption.