DIARY OF AN EARLY AMERICAN BOY (108 pp.)Eric SloaneWilfred Funk ($6.50).
In an old New England house, Author Eric Sloane found a wood-backed, leather-bound diary written in 1805 by a 15-year-old boy. Its entries were terse: "June 3Helped Father build rope hoist to move the water wheel." or "June 26Father and I sledded the oaks from the woodlot and put them down near the mill." A student of Early American craftsmanship and the author of volumes like The Seasons of America Past and American Barns and Covered Bridges. Sloane took the diary and dressed it out with verbal and graphic sketches, detailing...