Edna Annie Proulx (/ˈpruː/) was born August 22, 1935 and is
an American journalist and author. She has written most frequently as Annie
Proulx but has also used the names E. Annie Proulx and E.A. Proulx. Her second
novel, The Shipping News (1993), won both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and
the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction and was adapted as a 2001 film of the
same name. Her short story Brokeback Mountain was adapted as an Academy Award,
BAFTA and Golden Globe Award-winning major motion picture released in 2005. She
won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for her first novel, Postcards.
According to Wikipedia: Proulx (born Edna Ann Proulx, her
first name honoring one of her mother's aunts), was born in Norwich,
Connecticut, to parents of English and French-Canadian ancestry. Her maternal
forebears came to America fifteen years after the Mayflower in 1635. She
graduated from Deering High School in Portland, Maine, then attended Colby
College "for a short period in the 1950s", where she met her first
husband H. Ridgely Bullock, Jr. She later returned to college, studying at the
University of Vermont from 1966 to 1969, and graduated cum laude and Phi Beta
Kappa with a B.A. degree in History in 1969. She earned her M.A. degree from
Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University) in Montreal, Quebec
in 1973 and pursued, but did not complete, her Ph.D. degree. Proulx lived for
more than thirty years in Vermont…In 1994, she moved to Saratoga, Wyoming,
where she currently resides, spending part of the year in northern Newfoundland
on a small cove adjacent to L'Anse aux Meadows.
But what most people don’t know, is that in the wines, beers, spirits, and
cider world, she should be known only for one thing – writing the single best
book ever written on cider. In 1980, got Gateway Publishing, Annie Proulx and
Lew Nichols wrote Cider: Cider: Making, Using & Enjoying Sweet & Hard
Cider. Currently in its Third Edition, the book is available from Storey Books,
part of the Workman Books company.
The sell copy reads: The Pilgrims drank cider as they sailed
to America aboard the Mayflower. John Adams had a tankard of cider every
morning at breakfast. After a long day on safari, Ernest Hemingway liked to
kick back beside the campfire with a glass of cider. And Robert Frost saluted
his favorite beverage with a poem titled ?In A Glass of Cider.? Neck and neck
with brewing beer at home is the resurgence of making cider. Whether sweet,
hard, blended, or sparkling, trend watchers say cider, once the preferred
beverage of early America, could very well become the drink of the future.
(Hard cider is the fastest growing segment of the beverage industry.) Keeping
pace with the commercial cider producers are small-scale and individual cider
makers who have discovered how easy it is to make their own. After all, the
only ingredient you need is an apple. In this updated edition of Cider, Annie
Proulx and Lew Nichols take you step-by-step through the process that renders
fruit into a refreshing drink. In addition to learning about the equipment
you?ll need to make a glorious cider, Proulx and Nichols also discuss the pros
and cons of various types of apple presses ? from traditional heavy grinders to
sleek hydraulic presses. You?ll also learn about the glass bottles vs. wooden
barrels debate; how to filter, fine, and rack your cider; and where and how to
store it. Proulx and Nichols provide detailed recipes for making six types of
cider: still, sparkling, champagne, barrel, French, and flavored, with advice
on which apples to use to achieve a tart, aromatic, astringent, or neutral
quality in your cider. In fact, this book is brimming with expert advice on
cidermaking. If you want to plant your own apple orchard, this book has an
entire chapter that lists which cultivars of apples thrive in which parts of
the United States and Canada, along with each cultivar?s characteristics and
when it is ready for harvesting. Another chapter explains how to care for an
orchard, from improving the soil to pruning and thinning the trees to fighting
off pests and wildlife. Once a cidermaker has learned how to make excellent
cider, he or she is likely to look for further fields t o explore. With that in
mind, the authors include a chapter on making cider vinegars and brandy and
using cider in cooking.
Finally, Proulx and Nichols walk you through the latest
federal regulations covering the production and sale of homemade cider in the
United States and Canada, and they familiarize you with the kind of impact
state and provincial laws can make. The clear, simple language, numerous
illustrations, and detailed step-by-step directions make it easy for even
novices to become skilled cidermakers. This revised edition of the classic
handbook is a complete guide for anyone who wants to discover the pleasure of
making ? and drinking ? fresh cider.
The book is an absolute pleasure to read. My 1980 edition is
dog-earred and well worn. But I have the newest 2003 edition of the book as
well. Proulx and Nichols take you on a whirl wind history of the beverage as
well as a detailed instructions on how to make it.
What makes the book sweeter is that the 2003 edition has an
introduction by John Vittori, the wine and cidermaker of Furnace Brook Winery! This is the best single book ever written on cider, and is the only cider book you should ever need to for this history and making of cider. It is a classic of the wines, beers, and spirits cannon, and is certainly, due to it's parentage, a book to be included in the cannon of great east coast wine books!