1994, Longstreet Press, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia

This book of beautiful illustrations, with fascinating history woven throughout, delightfully captures that beloved American institution of yesteryear, the country store. Jim Harrison's artistry brings back to life these old-time edifices in all their homespun charm and crammed-shelf practicality. Exteriors are faithfully detailed, from clapboard siding and fake facades to front porches and soft drink signs. On the inside, the welcome clutter of goods and furnishings -- chewing tobacco, cheese rounds, penny candy, potbellied stoves, kerosene lamps, checker boards -- takes form again in the reader's eye and heart. Harrison's absorbing narrative recalls the evolution of the stores out of the old peddler-and-plantation system and offers wry portraits of the store owners (those "retailing philosophers") and the traveling salesmen who served them. Much more than just the buildings and the objects within them, these words and images distill for us a way of life which, though quickly passing, still speaks deeply to our listening spirits. Richly evocative of simpler times and pleasures, "Country Stores" satisfies like a Sunday dinner, enchants like a summer sunset.

Out of Print