MF 148 Margaret “Mimi” Killinger/ Helen Nearing Collection

Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History: MF 148 Margaret “Mimi” Killinger/ Helen Nearing Collection

Number of accessions: 6
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1999 & 2001
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: Margaret “Mimi” Killinger
Finding aides: some transcript
Access restrictions: NA3862
Description: Interviews by Margaret “Mimi” Killinger about Helen Nearing and also Scott Nearing (simple living advocates).

Related: If you find this collection interesting, you may want to check out some of the other Scott and Helen Nearing related resources: The Good Life Center, The Scott and Helen Nearing collection at Boston University’s Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, and The Scott and Helen Nearing Papers at The Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods.

NA3378 Nancy Berkowitz, interviewed by Margaret “Mimi” Killinger, March 3, 1999 and April 2, 2001, Blue Hill and Harborside, Maine, respectively. March 3, 1999: Berkowitz talks about Helen’s novels Living the Good Life and Loving and Leaving; Helen’s relationship with her husband, Scott; Juliette of the Herbs; Helen’s interaction with visitors to the farm; astrology and mysticism; Scott’s death; Helen’s relationship with Berkowitz and her family; Scott’s granddaughter Elka Schuman and her Bread and Puppet Theater in Glover, Vermont; Scott’s letters from Central and South America; Helen’s relationship with Berkowitz’s children; Scott’s 100th birthday party; Helen’s relationsip with Dr. Lovell; Helen’s relationship with her family; Elliot and Susan Coleman; Jean and Keith Hebron. Text: 15 pp. transcript. Recording: C 2496 90 minutes. April 2, 2001: Also present: Rachel Glickman & Henry Zacchini, resident stewards of Forest Farm. Berkowitz talks about the history of Forest Farm; how she came to live there; her duties; Brett Brubaker, builder of the house; growing and storing their own vegetables; changes in Blue Hill; Sunday music nights and Monday meeting nights; speaker Alicia Bay Laurel; the interior of the house; Helen and Scott and their trip to Europe; the Common Ground Fair; University of Maine Environmental History professor Dick Judd; her neighbors the Burts and Dietrichs; the introduction of the telephone at Forest Farm; life at Forest Farm; artist Max Schuman; friend Bill Copperthwaite; Helen’s practice of recycling cards; the Clivis Multrum Abby Rockefeller toilet; their Thorndike stove; painter Connie Caney; the Bread and Puppet people of Vermont; Pusso the cat; Helen’s travels after Scott’s death; Gail Disney; Paul Breedman; painter Cole Morgan; Rachel and Henry’s experiences living in Africa; Cuban patriotism. Text: 50 pp. transcript. Recording: C 2494, C 2495 150 minutes.

NA3380 Gail Disney, interviewed by Margaret “Mimi” Killinger, March 5, 1999, South Brooksville, Maine. Disney talks about Helen Nearing: Scott Nearing’s participation in the Arden Community in Wilmington, Delaware in the 1930s; living with the Nearings at Arden; Helen’s travels in Europe with Krishnamurti; separating Helen and Scott Nearing for Killinger’s feminism class; Helen’s opinions on vegetarianism; Helen’s love of animals; Scott’s belief in communism; Forest Farm; Helen’s and Scott’s colleagues Elliot Coleman, Keith Hebron, Stanley Joseph and Greg Sommers; Scott’s Monday night lectures; Helen’s travels to Cuba; Helen’s publishing house, the Social Science Institute; Stanley Joseph’s suicide; Stanley Joseph’s contributions to the community; Stanley Joseph’s book The Maine Farm; Helen’s relationship with her family; Helen’s personality and idealism; Helen’s friend Nancy Cudle Johnson; the effects of Scott Nearing’s death on Helen; Helen’s knitting; Scott’s mentorship of Helen; the effects of Helen’s death on the community. Text: 25 pp. transcript. Recording: C 2497 90 minutes.

NA3381 David Trager and Merle Trager, interviewed by Margaret “Mimi” Killinger, October, 14, 2001, Jamaica, Vermont. Also Present: Joshua J. McCloud. Trager talks about Scott Nearing: Scott being fired from Princeton for his views; SN’s marriage to Helen; SN’s followers; the Norm Williams house and its history; realtor Jim Howard, who sold his house to the Tragers; the Trager’s stone house; SN’s colleagues Wes Frost and Norman Williams; Ron Curtis’s work on the Trager’s house, colony member Pearl Buck; the history of the Trager house, its construction and work done to it. Text: 20 pp. transcript. Recording: C 2498 90 minutes.

NA3383 Jerry Goldman, interviewed by Margaret “Mimi” Killinger, October 15, 2001.

NA3384 Jeanne Gaudette, interviewed by Margaret “Mimi” Killinger, March 3, 1999, Blue Hill, Maine. Gaudette talks about Helen Nearing and her life: Scott’s mentorship of his wife; SN’s paternalism towards HN; HN’s travels and relationship with Krishnamurti; how HN met Krishnamurti; HN’s book Loving and Leaving; teacher CW Leadbetter, friend of Annie Besant; theosophy; the disintegration of HN’s romantic relationship with Krishnamurti; SN’ unwillingness to have children; German photographer Lotta Jacobi; SN’s colleague Eliot Coleman; Peitra Mueleman, President of the Theosophical Society of Holland; Friend Ellen Laconte; book Making of a Radical; HN’s relationship with her family; SN and HN’s relationship; HN and SN’s astrological relationship under their signs; friend Diane Fitzgerald; Barbara Damarosch; HN’s accidental death; friend Karen Frangoulis; the possibility that HN committed suicide; Gaudette’s participation in the simple life; colleagues Stanley Joseph and Keith Hebron; HN’s personality. Text: 27 pp. transcript. Recording: C 2500, C 2501 180 minutes.

NA3385 Rebecca Lepkoff, interviewed by Margaret “Mimi” Killinger, December 29, 2001, New York City, New York. Also present: Gene Lepkoff and Sarah Pandiscio. Lepkoff talks about Helen Nearing and her life in Vermont from 1950-1954: the Nearings’ Good Life Farm in Jamaica, Vermont; neighbors and colleagues Norm and Natalie Fields, Norm and Winnie Williams, Hilda and George Wendland and the Smiths; the Nearings’ exploitation of their neighbors; Hilda Wendland’s braided rugs; colleague Charles Kent; Jewish neighbors Miriam and Herb Leider; Scott Nearing’s lectures; John Saltmarsh’s autobiography of SN; SN’s debating skills; SN’s views on capitalism; Jerry Goldman’s views on SN; HN’s friend Toby Goldman; how meeting and marrying Scott changed HN’s lifestyle; the Nearings’ dietary practices as vegetarians; SN’s rules for living; the Nearing’s choice to sell their land to George Breen; writer Pearl Buck; the Williams’ and their home, which they sold to the Tragers; artist Peter Wendland, creator of the Stratton Arts Center; recluse Gary Washburn; Werden’s history of Jamaica, Vermont; Lepkoff’s photo display at the Deider Gallery in Chicago, Illinois. Text: 33 pp. transcript. Recording: C 2502, C 2503 180 minutes.