The Moosepath League

The Moosepath League is a series of books by Van Reid. [cite web
url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-544817.html
title=Innocents Adrift |publisher=The Washington Post
accessdate=2008-06-26
last=
first=] The books are a loosely connect series of humorous adventures set in Maine in the late nineteenth century. The first book in the series was picked as a NY Times notable book of 1998. [cite web
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9901EED71739F935A35751C1A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2
title=Notable Books of 1998
publisher=New York Times
accessdate=2008-06-26
last=
first=]

The founding members of the league are:
Mr. Tobias Walton - league chairman;
Mr Sundry Moss - assistant to Mr Walton;
Mr. Matthew Ephram;
Mr. Christopher Eagleton;
Mr. Joseph Thump.

Mr. Walton is a genial Pickwickian character, Sundry Moss is nominally his valet but functions as general assistant and "fixer". Ephram, Eagleton and Thump are a trio of unworldly but thoroughly well-intentioned gentleman bachelors that inject comic farce into the proceedings.
The characters are a homage to Charles Dickens' Mr. Pickwick and company. In chapter four of Cordelia Underwood, Cordelia finds a copy of the Pickwick Papers in her uncle's trunk.

Author Van Reid says that the names of the characters Epram, Eagleton and Thump were chosen to evoke the sound of a heavy object falling downstairs.

List of Books

The adventures of "The Moosepath League" were first published in serial form in the "Lincoln County Weekly", Damariscotta, Maine.

References

External Links

* Van Reid's Moosepath League website [http://moosepath.com/]

* The Moosepath League newsletters [http://www.midcoast.com/~vanreid/index.htm]
* Penguin Bookclub Reading Guide [http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/underwood_peer_plainway.html]