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This digital document, covering the life and work of Ray Stannard Baker, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thomson Gale. The length of the entry is 1136 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
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• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
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This digital document is an article from St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 216 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Signed essays ranging from 500 to 2,500 words, written by subject experts and edited to form a consistent, readable, and straightforward reference. Entries include subject-specific bibliographies and textual cross-references to related essays. ... Read more

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Relying on a smooth, direct, narrative style, Peterson distills complex topics and presents them with remarkable clarity...General readers will welcome that approach and applaud this book for furnishing a concise, well-crafted, engagingly written, and illuminating portrait of an important president and Virginian.Samuel Shepherd, Centenary College of Louisiana, Virginia Magazine

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I came here eight years ago as the renter of this farmof which soon afterward I became the owner. The time before that I like to forget. The chief impression it leftupon my memorynow happily growing indistinctis of being hurried faster than I could well travel. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Mildly oxymoronic title for a great work.
Thoughts of contentment and serenity don't conjure up the kinds of images we might associate with harrowing adventure, which makes the title of this book stand out.But as you read you realize the adventure the title describes is of a mental sort, and it begins to make sense.

This is a brief snapshot of a turn of the century farmer's bucolic life.The book doesn't go into too great detail of the farmer's daily routines, but that isn't the point.We see that the way the farmer's mental framework meshes with the quiet rhythms and surroundings of his life leads to a sense of singular purposefulness to his work and the importance of doing his job well.But the book doesn't paint the farm life as being entirely simple.It shows glimpses of a deep well of specialized knowledge and attention to detail required of the farmer to do his job well.The contentment this produces colors his interactions with various people he meets in the book, and paints a picture of the kind of person we all wish were more common.

The writing shows its age, but it has aged gracefully.Verbose and flowering where it needs to be, but it is never difficult to read.The farmer's descriptions of the shapes and colors of his farm and the emotions they evoke in him are vivid and moving, something not easily accomplished by a writer of any age.Underpinning the serenity produced by his love of the land is a sophisticated but elegant religious outlook that is probably uncommon for the age.

Will this book ever rank with the giants of literature?Probably not.Among its philosophical kind it will most likely always be overshadowed by more well known and dense works by the likes of Thoreau.But I can imagine the lead character of the book would be amused by that fact, understanding that the joys of the kind celebrated by this book just aren't what everyone seeks.

Perhaps the greatest praise I can offer is simply that I rarely find an author who I am compelled to read beyond a single volume.Yet upon finding out that Baker wrote a series of books along this theme, I am compelled to seek out and read more of his work.

A MUCH OVERLOOKED GEM HERE
This is the first in a series of around eight books by David Grayson (actually this is Ray Stannard Baker writing as Grayson).
The title of the work says it all.If you are looking for a very, very mellow read, simply stuffed with wonderful observations, then this is one for you.The style/syntax, while admittedly archaic, is great and it takes only a couple of pages for you to fall into it's rythm.This book was written in the early part of the last century.This work reflects a time long past in this country, but that being said, this work still
touches many aspects of our lives we often overlook in one way or another.If you can find this work, and the rest of the series, I strongly recommend you purchase them as you will want to read them over and over again. It is a shame we seem to have lost such books.

Wonderful, insightful, optimistic...
There are many great words to describe this book (and many others) by David Grayson.I can't believe there are so few reviews either, the last ones were in 1998!I think it's high time to spread the word about this man and his beautiful observations of who we are and how the simple things in life are what really matter.

Simply the greatest . . .
My first exposure to this book was ten years ago, when in the LSU library I stumbled upon some very old, very dusty books.Being intrigued by old books, I found his simple titles (Adventures in Contentment, Adventures inFriendship, Adventures in Solitude, etc.) irresistible.I read 5 DavidGrayson (Ray Stannard Baker's pseudonym) books in two days.I returnedthem to the library, then soon afterward moved to California. I could notremember Grayson's name, though I would tell stories about those wonderfulbooks that influenced my life and my writing.

7 years later, I cameacross a 90 year old copy of Adventures in Contentment, and found that itstruck me as even more profound, having tasted a little of the cynicalworld that drove the main character from the city to the farm. This is theonly book I have ever read that made me cry tears of human experience --and then the very next chapter had me laughing out loud.(I was sitting ata coffee house with my friends when this happened, after which they wantedto borrow the book.)

If you are a person of thought, this book will moveyou.Grayson will take you on a tour of his farm and his mind.You willgive him a voice, and you will hear that voice speak the words as you read. You will quote this book, you will reread this book, you will think ofthis book with the fondness of a close friend.

The simplicity of theessays will charm you, his masterful vocabulary will force you to grab yourdictionary, and his expressive literary patterns will strike you as beingas close to poetry as prose could possible come.

A picture may say 1000words, but David Grayson's simple essays about small town life in the early1900's will paint more vivid images in your mind than 1,000,000Michaelangelos ever could. Simply stated, this is the greatest literarywork ever written.Unfortunately, modern literary critics refer to thistype of work as unimportant, sentimental and preachy. So this book willprobably never be placed in its rightful spot in the literarycanon.

Still, don't think the author died in obscurity without his talentbeing discovered.He was a lifelong friend of Woodrow Wilson, and in hisold age, Ray Stannard Baker won the Pulitzer Prize for his biography of hisfamous friend.

Most delightful book I have ever read.
I wonder why there aren't any reviews on this book? It is the greatest book ever written.This book is about a person who has found a perfect harmony in life. Escaping all the scholastic philosophy and theologicalquest David Grayson here settles for what I regard the highest wisdom andthe true purpose of life, and that is living. The book is potrayal ofextra-ordinary experiences of a farmer poet who discovers a world withinand without and adds a dream world quality with a sense of humour to oureveryday experiences. A return to nature, beauty, simplicity, spontanietyand harmony! ... Read more