As I’ve moved into retirement from teaching at Phillips Academy, Andover, I’ve learned that I have to find new ways of communicating with people. This website is intended to present writing and teaching projects, some old, others brand new. E-publishing has provided one of the new ones, but most of my books still exist in the good old paper and ink format, and this site will tell you about them and how to find them. I’m also still doing some teaching and speaking, and here you’ll be able to keep up with those activities as well. As my old mentor Garrison says, “Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.”® 
Carlton Sortwell Carlton Sortwell is a prodigy who loves two things deeply: baseball, and Meredith Sewall, who sits in front of him in school. As he starts playing Little League, Carlton experiences both passionate joy and deep sorrow as he grows from a child in Maine to a young man in Massachusetts. Baseball can be a harsh mistress, but both the game and the girl offer Carlton redemptive powers as well.
:: full review
The Ecology of the Heart (EBOOK ONLY) The Ecology of the Heart is a novel of discovering America in 1976, the Bicentennial, and in so doing discovering atonement and peace. Leaving behind a crumbling marriage, thirty-year-old Sam Sewall sets out from Wiscasset on a ten-speed bicycle, heading west, alone, foundering emotionally and physically.
During his journey, he recalls the strange events that set him in motion. :: full review 
Greenleaf Fires (EBOOK) The Greenleaf Fires is a novel of renunciation and redemption, the story of a man’s struggle to cut himself away from his father. The setting is rural Maine. Alcott Greenleaf sets fires, serves a prison sentence, fights in Guam during the Second World War, and eventually finds peace through his young, damaged son.
:: full review
The Withering Child (Author Signed Edition) Told from a father’s perspective, The Withering Child is the story of a young boy’s profound reaction to the disruptive forces of change. John A. Gould’s artful narrative of a domestic crisis aptly gauges the subjective undercurrents of contemporary family life. Indeed, parents who read it will confront facets of
their own – and their children’s – expectations and apprehensions. 
News:
This spring CARLTON SORTWELL has been published as a Kindle book, joining THE GREENLEAF FIRES and THE ECOLOGY OF THE HEART as three novels in this format.
It has thus become the third part of a projected five-novel series, all of which are at least partly set in Wiscasset, Maine. That's all from here, where the day has grown sunny and warm.
Best to you, John
In April 2014, I return to Bennington to teach my seven-week elective “Through Syntax to Style” grammar course. This will be the fifth time I’ve taught it.
Based largely on THE GRAMMAR OF ALISTAIR BARNSTABLE (q.v.) it has seems to have met with general appeal; at least students have continued to sign up for it. For further information about this course, email me at johnagouldv@gmail.com.
In the fall, I will be attending the Anthony Powell Conference in Venice, Italy. [Not to brag (well, maybe a little) last December I was a co-winner of the Dickie Umfraville After-dinner Speech Competition at the AP Birthday celebration at the Grolier Club in New York. For a prize, the lunch was free, and I got to sit on a sort of throne.]
Read More Short Writings
Over the years I have published a number of short pieces, articles and short stories. They are now pretty much forgotten. In consequence, some are being republished on the blog.
One example, a very short story I wrote in a workshop with Madeleine L’Engle, can be found under the title “Delores Meets an Angel.” Madeleine asked for a story about an angel, and that’s what I wrote!
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