My mom grew up in Vermont, and has spent her professional career as a field biologist in the streams across the entirety of the state. I have family in Charlotte, relatives buried in Hinesburg, and lived in Burlington for a summer. My phone number is from Vermont. You might call it my spiritual home.

I first found this book while on summer vacation in the Northeast Kingdom, on the shelf of Green Mountain Books in Lyndonville. A Christmas or two later, my parents picked up a copy for me of his earlier book on the same theme, "Vermont People," and then a year or two later, "Vermont Farm Women."

Although I haven't read the entirety of Peter Miller's works, it seems as though it would be hard to classify "A Lifetime of Vermont People" as anything other than his magnum opus. At times, Miller comes across as an ornery old man that can't navigate changing times (he is), and yet, he has captured something essential about Vermont and Vermonters in his pages.

My mom is a photographer, and has done various black and white photography projects with me over the years, which we've developed in the basement. Maybe its due to this firsthand experience, but I wouldn't have Miller's black and white photography any other way (although it feels unfortunate that he switched away from film later on). He says he based the layout on what he learned from his time at "Life," and you can see how that's the case. The layout and print quality of this book are archival quality. Even just the detail and contrast on the cover is stunning every time I look at it.

The breadth of the book—covering sixty-two years of sixty different Vermont stories (individuals and family with a few oddities thrown in, such as general stores and one-room schoolhouses)—is staggering. It is a miracle of Miller's love for Vermont and a long life of photography and dedication to community that has produced this book.

Where's "Vermont People" was somber, "A Lifetime of Vermont People" has crossed the border into cantankerous tone. This book is Miller's way of mourning and commemorating a bygone era. Many of Miller's friends, which you'll meet in the pages of this book, died half a century ago. This is a beautiful thing and a sacred task.

So what is the essence of Vermont? It is something too subtle and deep to sum up in a few words. Read the book instead. ( )