September 15th  was the 72nd publication anniversary of Pumpkin Moonshine.  In this her first published book Tasha Tudor introduced much of the iconography that would appear in book after book all her life:  a little girl, family spaces and farm life, antiques, authentic locale.  
 
In Henry Z. Walck's enlarged edition (1972) the pages are not numbered, but if you calculate that the title page is page [5], this discussion will be more sensible.  Odd-numbered pages carry Tudor's text about Sylvie Ann and her adventure with Wiggy creating a jack o'lantern.
 
The protagonist Sylvie Ann makes her appearance on page [10] wearing old-fashioned pantaloons, a ¾ length blue gingham dress and a muslin apron to protect that dress.  She is in the back mudroom of an old  farmhouse, its plaster walls adorned only with white-wash.  There is a shaker peg board running high on the wall - too high for Sylvie to reach - until it meets a simple curtain-less six over six window.  Sylvie stands on a ladder back chair to reach her bonnet.  There is also a man's heavy overcoat on the pegboard.  It might be Uncle Henry's skunk coat that appears in Snow Before Christmas.  
 
The actual Sylvie lived in England and was the real-life niece of Tudor's husband Thomas McCready.  Tudor met her before marrying McCready, in fact created this book about her before the 1938 wedding.  The text relates that she was visiting her grandparent's farm in Connecticut [on Gallows Hill Road in Redding].  This is true.  
 
The farm appears on subsequent pages, especially [12] where Sylvie climbs up the steep hill from the house to the cornfield.  No longer a cornfield today, the plateau at the top of the hill is still open land.  But, now it holds the cremains of generations of the McCready family.  Tudor has painted the historic topography well.  She revisited it in several old Christmas cards with images of the road winding up the hill toward the house.  The stone walls are authentically ancient by local standards.  General Putnam quartered his army on this farm and neighboring hills during the winter of 1778-79.  Such stones were used to build hearths and winter shelters for his soldiers.
 
Tasha Tudor paid attention to detail and rendered the minutest item exceedingly well in her pictures: the hills, the barns, the roosters, too. A good example is when the run-away pumpkin finally hits the house on page [30].  She included fall asters in bloom and a wisteria vine so large it must be fastened to the corner of the house.  Tudor loved a rain barrel and has included one of those.  A large piece of flagstone has been laid outside this back shed door.  It's a tidier way to prepare the entrance to a farm house, even if it's only into the woodshed.  It helps keep the mud out.
 
Interiors don't escape Tasha Tudor's brush.  Look at the image above of Grandpawp listening to Sylvie's tale on page [34].  Within a limited area, Tudor paints a pretty nice old corner chair, a tambour desk with a partitioned interior, papers neatly filed, books, a potted geranium, a quill pen and wainscoted walls.  We laugh as Wiggy sniffs at a mouse hole beside the desk.  Even Grandpawp's balding head is part of the McCready family's DNA.  You'll see it in later Tudor books depicting husband T.L., Jr. and grandson Tom.  Considering the wealth of detail packed into this small painting, it is little wonder that Pumpkin Moonshine captured a good deal of attention for the 23-year-old author.  Her admirers were many..
 
As easy as the pictures and story line seem to flow, Tudor faced at least one challenge.  She needed to capture the speed of the pumpkin, and Sylvie and Wiggy coming down the hill after it, page [20].  Wiggy is the weak figure in the composition.   His body is distorted, but small hash lines convey the sense of speed, especially well on the pumpkin.  This being the rocky New England hillside, the pumpkin whizzes by an outcropping of stone and a small bush.
 
Another distortion that gave Tudor a problem was Mr. Hemmelskamp's boots on page [28].  Tudor often said that she had difficulty drawing feet.  This painting bolsters her self-criticism at the beginning of her career.  The boots are misshapen in a way that defies human anatomy. 

There are other traits of a New England farm in the book.   Look for a railed gate in the stone wall, geese, chickens and goats, a tiger cat and a black cat and birds in flight.  One of the nicest touches we like is in the last painting, page [42].   Sylvie is back in the corn field the following spring working among tender young corn shoots to plant a new crop of pumpkins.   And lying on the ground beside her is the Shaker box where she kept her pumpkin seeds dry all winter long.
 
Pumpkin Moonshine is a tiny and promising book, full of detail.  Spend some time with your copy.  You'll find even more points of Sylvie's New England existence if you study the pictures closely.   Take Joy!