FROM THE STACKS

Berkshire authors, Berkshire books

The Berkshires is an inspirational place for writers. Nathaniel Hawthorne penned his gothic classic, “The House of the Seven Gables,” during the 18 months he lived in Lenox. A chance encounter on Monument Mountain sparked a friendship between Hawthorne and Herman Melville, who lived at Arrowhead in Pittsfield. There, following Hawthorne’s encouragement, Melville finished his novel, “Moby-Dick.”

Sometimes, authors who live nearby base their books in the Berkshires, while others live here and write about faraway places.

Gathered here is an offering of books by authors who are past or present Berkshire residents or who have written a book based in or about the Berkshires.

“Imagine A City” By Mark Vanhoenacker

Commercial airline pilot and Pittsfield native Mark Vanhoenacker has spent nearly two decades crossing the skies and touching down in dozens of the storied cities. In his latest book, which weaves travelogue with memoir, Vanhoenacker celebrates the cities he has come to know and love through the lens of the hometown his heart has never quite left. (Knopf, July 2022)

“Collage Your Life” By Melanie Mowinski

Like meditation or journaling, making a collage can be an avenue for self-reflection and artistic exploration. In “Collage Your Life,” artist and MCLA art professor Melanie Mowinski teaches a variety of core techniques and provides dozens of prompts to jumpstart the creative process and encourage crafters to explore the versatility of collage. (Storey Publishing, June 2022)

“Tales of Al” By Lynne Cox

Stockbridge resident and acclaimed author Lynne Cox’s newest release centers around Al, an adorable but untrainable chocolate Newfoundland, who grows up to become a daring rescue dog and super athlete — part of Italy’s elite, highly specialized corps of water rescue dogs who swoop out of helicopters and save lives. (Knopf, May 2022)

“Book of Night” By Holly Black

Amherst author Holly Black has made a name for herself in the realm of young adult and children’s book markets, especially as the author of the beloved “Spiderwick Chronicles.” The New York Times bestselling author takes the leap to adult fantasy with “Book of Night,” a tale filled with a cast of doppelgängers, mercurial billionaires and magicians. Charlie Hall has been trying to distance herself from past mistakes, but bartending at a dive bar keeps her too close to the corrupt underbelly of the Berkshires. (Tor/Macmillan, May 2022)

“If You Want To Know How I Got Brainwashed” By Betsy Dovydenas

The artist and Lenox resident, in more than 200 monoprints with narrative text, tells the story of how she was brainwashed by a bogus church with a bogus pastor and how her family wrestled her out of its grasp. An insightful look at how groups can manipulate people at vulnerable moments, written with clear insight from a survivor. (City Point Press, September 2021)

“A Countryman’s Journal: Views of Life and Nature from a Maine Coastal Farm” By Roy Barrette

For more than 20 years, Roy Barrette wrote his “Retir’d Gardener” column for The Berkshire Eagle and The Ellsworth American in Ellsworth, Maine, near his home in North Brooklin. First published in 1981, the recently reissued “A Countryman’s Journal” is a collection of 75 of Barrette’s columns and essays celebrating the joys of small-town Maine. (Islandport Press, May 2022) ■

— Compiled by Jennifer Huberdeau

The Berkshires and the world: Exploring the crown jewel of Pittsfield Cemetery

BY TRISTAN WHALEN

Astone’s throw from the well-traveled lanes of Onota Street in Pittsfield lies one of the most interesting and best preserved examples of neo-Byzantine architecture in Massachusetts — and also one of the Berkshires’ best-kept secrets.

The McKay Mausoleum is striking, but also strikingly out-of-the-way, perched like a fortified lighthouse on the westernmost edge of the sprawling Pittsfield Cemetery. For those who cross its path, there is a special reward to be discovered: it’s a jewelry box flush with architectural intrigue and local history. If the walls of this mausoleum could speak, they would narrate a story illuminating how the character, culture and industry of the Berkshires has made a forever-lasting imprint on the world.

On a beautiful Sunday in May, I visited the Pittsfield Cemetery to gather the fragments of history I had heard about this obscure monument into a more complete story.

As I walked northward on Linden Slope from the cemetery’s gated entrance on Wahconah Street, the mausoleum’s magnificent white marble and hexagonal geometry stood out among a sea of muted gray gravestones and brown-bespeckled obelisks. Towering 23 feet above its closest neighbors, its bronze doors, wind-scoured walls and ominous, angular dome project an aura of intensity: a reminder of the structure’s purpose and the contents that lay inside it.

To classify this monument as merely an example of neo-Byzantine architecture would be a mistake. Yes, its hexagonal foundation, rounded arches, soaring dome and sumptuous decorative elements — such as the interior glass mosaic and pattern-punctuated bronze gates (designed in the likeness of the doors to St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice) — squarely reflect design characteristics of the Byzantine era. However, closer examination reveals that the cupola’s detailed copper finials are more Gothic than Byzantine; so are the lancet windows that articulate each facade, inlaid with intricate-yet-subdued stained-glass windows.

Inside, McKay Mausoleum is lined with an additional 15 inches of rose-colored North African Numidian marble (a favorite in classical Rome), giving the interior a muted coziness that contrasts sharply with the austere mood of the white Lee-quarried exterior marble. The five stained-glass windows, opaque and unalive from the outside, glow, and the remembrances of the McKay family they depict are now intelligible. The windows filter light into the space, bathing it in warm, languid tones of gold and crimson.

Above the windows, mosaics composed of thousands of fragments of colored glass depict the virtues of industry: charity, patience, fate, invention and power. The tomb’s domed roof narrows to an apex just out of view from my position on the outside peering in. 

The McKay Mausoleum features stained glass windows by Mary Elizabeth Tillinghast. The windows were installed just days before the tomb’s dedication in October 1893, having just arrived from the 1893 World’s Fair, where they had been on display.

Left, Mary Elizabeth Tillinghast, a renowned stained glass artist and interior designer was hired by Gordon McKay, a Gilded Age industrialist and inventor, as the architect of his family mausoleum. Completed in 1893, the tomb, located in Pittsfield Cemetery, cost $30,000. It holds six members of the McKay family.

ALL PHOTOS BY BEN GARVER