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Patchwork Puzzle

March 2023
1min read

Joan Paterson Kerr’s “Patchwork Primitives” in our April/May 1981 issue brought an interesting response from reader John Maass, a frequent contributor to this department: “Jean Lipman’s ‘primitives’ are ingenious, but her memory may be faulty concerning the painting shown on pages 22–23. In your caption for the picture, you say that ‘the striking pattern of the painting … was inspired by a Connecticut Congregational church Jean Lipman had once driven past and photographed.’ I think it’s more likely that the pattern was inspired by a photograph I took of the (Dutch) Reformed Church in Rhinebeck, New York, in 1955. The picture appeared in my 1957 book, The Gingerbread Age , and was also reproduced in several of the reviews that followed its publication. The next time I passed the church, those interesting sectional shutters were gone, and they were never put back.”

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Stories published from "February/March 1982"

Authored by: Carmine A. Prioli

In the shadow of Bunker Hill, bigots perpetrated an atrocity that showed a shocked nation that the fires of the Reformation still burned in the New World

Authored by: Charles B. Strozier

To stave off despair, the President relied on a sense of humor that was rich, self-deprecating—and surprisingly bawdy

Authored by: The Editors

about foreign policy, his opponent, the voters, and the polls

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and plans a counterattack

Authored by: The Editors

The Combat Art of Albert K. Murray

Authored by: Oscar V. Armstrong

Once again, Americans are learning the delicate art of trading with the biggest market on earth. Here’s how they did it the first time.

Authored by: James Wunsch

—More than a century ago, the city of St. Louis enacted a well-thought-out plan to legalize vice. What went wrong? Everything .

Authored by: The Editors

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Far from home and in the face of every kind of privation, the Civil War soldier did his best to re-create the world he left behind him

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