Book of the Week (1/8/2024)

Above the Notch photographs by Fletcher Manley (Bondcliff Books, 2023)

(This book's) purpose is to arouse awareness of the importance that wildlands play in the economic and spiritual value of northern New Hampshire. 

It is this hardscrabble region above the “notches” where people live and work close to their environment that I have come to appreciate as a land apart. This little book is a visual commentary on life above the notches as I see it. More importantly, it is offered as a reminder of the importance of the wildlands inherent in the North Country. 

The same impulse that inspired early artists to romanticize the region, and settlers to create trails into the wilderness, drives adventure tourism today. Wild nature, and a yearning for it, infuses life in this land above the notches. Great landscape artists have immortalized it, mountaineers explored it, loggers harvested it, and conservationists worked to preserve it. That work continues. The future of New Hampshire’s North Country lies in the preservation of its wildlands.

This is a 6 x 9 inch landscape formatted book of 60 pages. It is a collection of ninety photographs that includes interspersed short text captions. -- Photographer's blurb

About the author:

Fletcher Manley is a professional photographer living in Lancaster, NH. The focus of his work over the course of the last 60+ years has been primarily in the area of outdoor recreation. His work has been featured in such publications as McLean’s Magazine, Today’s Health, True, Venture, Seventeen, Playboy, Ski and Skiing magazines.