Farm Friends is a memoir and a study of the generation of the 1960s. Beginning on a communal farm in 1969, it continues as a personal chronicle of the author and his extended family up to the present day. From the greenhouse in the spring to haying in the summer; from cold, wood-heated winters to abundant home-cooked dinners in the fall, back-to-the-land communards of the late '60s and early '70s made their way in a new and unfamiliar world. Later, relocated in cities and towns across the country, they used what they had learned to continue to explore and to influence life as they found it in the late 20th and early 21st century. What sort of individuals did the rebellious and anti-establishment youth become? How much of their idealism did they retain in the coming decades, as many of them were pulled into mainstream and urban life? Such issues are at the core of Farm Friends. The author’s narrative traces the earlier roots and later pursuits of some of the many participants, companions and friends attracted to this new way of life. Written in a clear and literate manner, Farm Friends is intended as readable history, stories interwoven into an ongoing narrative that suggests the fabric of an entire generation. From care of the cow and auto repair in rural New England, to Paris, London, and San Francisco, Farm Friends spans nearly fifty years in the life of the author and his friends, and sets before the reader materials for a reassessment of a complex generation.

Thanks to Tom Fels' Farm Friends, we can begin to unravel the importance and influence of the wildest, freest, loosest decade of our lives. -- Peter Goldmark, Project Director, Environmental Defense, former president of the Rockefeller Foundation and chairman and CEO of the International Herald Tribune

"Farm Friends serves as a valuable contribution to countercultural history, enhanced by profiles of visionaries from that era who have lived their alternative philosophy and values. From rural to urban settings, the common thread in Tom Fels' book is a sense of evolving community."—Paul Krassner, founder and editor of The Realist

“Make an exception and buy this book! Shop-a-lujah!” -- Reverend Billy Talen, author of What Should I Do If Reverend Billy Is In My Store?, What Would Jesus Buy?, and spiritual leader of the Church of Stop Shopping

"[Fels] writes beautifully because he thinks with powerful clarity. This book— a journey, an elegy, an investigation—touches the soul of an era and, at day's end, the aching, searching American heart."—Ron Suskind, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist

Immensely enjoyable account of a modern rite of passage in which reintegration into society provided important new insights into social norms and expectations. -- Dr. Robert Cox, professor of history and head of special collections and archives, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Farm Friends is a baby-boomer’s Blithedale Romance. Fels reminds the rest of us that the boomers really did make revolution even if it didn’t turn out the way they planned -- Debby Applegate, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Most Famous Man in America

Farm Friends reveals how the myths of the Sixties began, and its roots put down through the lives of very real people. Both those of us who were there, and those who have only heard second hand that something extraordinary happened in the Sixties, will find Fels' narrative a delicious and important read. – From the Foreword by author and activist Carl Oglesby

Tom Fels’ four years on a communal farm provide the background for Farm Friends. Following these years (1969-73) he spent five years as a college administrator before becoming a full time curator and writer. Some of his many exhibitions have been presented at the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and the J. Paul Getty Museum in California. His most recent book was nominated for the Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Award, the Philip Johnson Award, and the Wittenborn Memorial Award. Named a fellow of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and of the Huntington Library, he is the founder of the Famous Long Ago Archive at the University of Massachusetts, in Amherst, which focuses on the extended family introduced in Farm Friends. He lives with his wife in North Bennington, Vermont.

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Distributor: Chelsea Green Publishing
Publication Date: 05-15-2008
Pages: 400
Measurements: 8.5in X 5.5in X 1.0in X 19oz