Lastest issue of Neshaminy Journal is Published just in time for Fall

The Doylestown Historical Society and Neshaminy: The Bucks County Historical and Literary Journal are pleased to present the Fall/Winter 2023 issue of Neshaminy, with a cover featuring a stunning autumnal landscape by Bucks County painter Patricia Allingham Carlson, who was profiled in the issue just days before her death on September 10.

A skilled, award-winning artist, Carlson’s watercolors sold throughout the world and appeared on book jackets as well as television and theater sets. Born in 1956, Carlson obtained a degree in art history from Penn State and spent her entire career illustrating the places, people, flora and fauna of Bucks County, as well as opening her home studio for private lessons.

“If you love something, you persevere,” she told Neshaminy managing editor William J. Donahue. “Art and nature are two major releases for the human spirit. The world adds a lot of noise and you can feel guilty about what you do, making art, especially when there is so much suffering and anguish. But how does not doing your work help?”

In a separate article, “Purdy and Me: Don’t Feed Him Because He Might Get Nasty,” writer Don Swaim describes his ten-year friendship with the controversial author James Purdy (1914-2009), whose best-known novel, Malcolm, was created in a Bucks County farmhouse. The book was translated into a play staged by Edward Albee. Often cited as an authentic genius and one of the most undervalued and underread authors in America, Purdy spent much of his career waging war on his publishers and critics alike. The issue offers an original short story by Purdy, “Sound of Talking,” first published in 1955.

Also included in this issue is a profile by local journalist Daniel Dorian on the venerable Bucks County Writers Workshop, which has spent a quarter of a century helping to inspire local writers. Says Dorian, “The BCWW has fostered a sense of community among local writers for twenty-five years and counting, all working together to make simpler the arduous journey to publication. Some members have found success and satisfaction, while others have learned a sobering lesson: that writing is not for everyone. It is, as the American novelist Alice Childress once said, ‘a labor of love and also an act of defiance, a way to light a candle in a gale wind.’”

The issue also features a historical lookback at the fiery destruction of the former Doylestown High School in 1973, with photos from the Historical Society’s archive.

Additional highlights include:

• Fiction by Natalie Zellat Dyen on ghostly happenings at the historic Black Bass Inn
• Horror by William J. Donahue on deadly doings in an insular neighborhood in the northeastern corner of Philadelphia
• Historical fiction by Don Swaim on renowned seventeenth-century scientist Joseph Priestley, discoverer of oxygen
• A conversation with novelist and playwright Ken Jaworowski
• An interview with Linda Salley of the African American Museum of Bucks County
• Poetry by Joseph Brunetti, Spencer Szwalbenest, and Hayden Saunier
• Illustrations by Pat Achilles

The Fall/Winter 2023 issue of Neshaminy: The Bucks County Historical and Literary Journal is a co-publication of the Doylestown Historical Society and the Bucks County Writers Workshop and can be obtained at the DHS at 56 S Main St., local bookstores, and online from Amazon.com. The Journal welcomes submissions. More information at neshaminyjournal.org and doylestownhistorical.org.