From the Hills of Fauquier County

Descendants of Chief Justice John Marshall return home for a family reunion. Peyton Marshall reports, in the new issue.

I pinned my name tag to my jacket. That evening there was a getting-to-know-you cocktail party. I chatted with various cousins who asked me what I did. Most were only mildly curious, looking over my shoulder in anticipation of their next connection, but one man questioned me intently. His name was Neil and he was a historian. “And did you enjoy selling real estate?” he asked.

I smiled. Nobody wants to hear the truth at a cocktail party so I talked about all the good things in Iowa and the charming little towns that populate the prairie. I told Neil about the times I showed farmhouses miles from anywhere and how the prairie roads are laid out on longitudinal lines. Every few miles they dead-end and shift eastward to correct for the curvature of the earth. I talked about the beauty of the grasslands and how the native species have a six-foot root system designed to survive fire.

I didn’t mention that Dale, my boss at Hoover Real Estate, was my constant companion as I learned to sell—or not sell—houses. Dale was an ex-radio DJ who furtively peeled scabs off his balding pate and then ate them. He kept a box of wigs and wacky glasses under his desk in case someone was “in need of a laugh.”

Read more of “From the Hills of Fauquier County“

Dirty Politics, Designer Kisses, and More

Issue 6 is: Peyton Marshall on celebrity family reunions; Dubravka Ugresic on setting off alarms; Keith Lee Morris on getting lost on purpose; Colleen Kinder on defining Iceland; and Martha Cooley on the sounds of silence. With new stories by Peter Orner (with illustrations by Eric Orner), Gary Amdahl, Sana Krasikov, and Preeta Samarasan; and new poems by Cathy Park Hong, Tom Yuill, Major Jackson, Billy Collins, and others, and translations by John Ashbery and Luc Sante. In the Focus portfolio, the state of Italian literature. And Jono Rotman at White Sands Missile Range Museum on the cover.

Full Table of Contents