New Reads from Delaplane’s J. Norman Reid
Written by Diane Helentjaris | Photo by Michael Butcher
Fences spool across Virginia’s Piedmont, adding intrigue to the rolling hills of the countryside. Whether drystack stone, wattle, zigzagging timber, barbed wire, or pristine painted lumber, each fence line claims its own charm and adds to the distinctly Hunt Country aesthetic.
Local author J. Norman Reid’s newest book, “Metes & Bounds: Virginia’s Walls and Fences in Photographs,” is an ode to the Commonwealth’s fences. Released this September, the book pairs 130 photographs with a piece of poetry or a saying that captures the illustrated fence’s essence and offers a moment to reflect.
On the premise of his book, Reid explains, “Fences are everywhere and we don’t see them. They blend into the background, yet [all] are worth noticing — not just stone walls, which are so iconic and transfixing. A lot of wooden fences are magical in the way they are laid out: painted, the plants next to them, the nearby woods and trees.” He continues, “Fences are deeply embedded in our psyche. They show up in our speech a lot… ‘breaking down walls,’ ‘mending fences,’ ‘don’t fence me in.’ [My] book talks about that, about building and repairing stone walls.”
Reid recently released a new murder mystery, too. “The Miasma Murders” hit bookshelves two months before “Metes & Bounds.” The second in his Capitol Hill Mystery series, this one has his “well-meaning but fumbling amateur sleuth,” Henry Wright, discovering the body of a slain Washington Post reporter. “I try to make the protagonist a bit quirky,” Reid says. He succeeds, infusing humor along with the mayhem.
As the story unfolds, Reid offers his insights on the current political climate. The background of “The Miasma Murders” underscores what he characterizes as “the twin perils of gerrymandering and voter suppression tactics… Democracy is terribly important to us. It’s very delicate,” he says, and people need to “stay informed. … I hope there’s something educational in the book as well as an interesting crime-solving example.”
Reid, who lives in Delaplane, has authored and coauthored a number of books and publications. They reflect his personal interests (for example, “Shooting Iron Horses: Photographing Your Model Railroad” and “On Living Well: Reflections on Creating a Good Life”) and his prior career in government (such as “Rural Government Capacity: Institutional Authority and Local Leadership” and “Disaster Management Handbook”). In a previous life, he worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. His tasks included community development, public health, and economic research on rural societies.
Growing up as the eldest child of a Methodist minister, his family of six spent most of their time in small-town Ohio. Reid recalls having “a lot of different interests.” As a child, he “fished, ran around in the woods, had a newspaper route, and delivered papers at age 6.” When he left home for Muskingum College, he thought he’d be a doctor but quickly found the coursework boring. A respected history professor, cued in by Reid’s interest in people, steered him toward political science. The subject piqued his interest and Reid went on to earn a bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree in the discipline.
Now 80, married, and a father, he explains that he remains vibrant and productive by rarely watching television. He writes in his journal and reads “a lot.” In his study, he always has music playing or listens to his favorite Cleveland baseball team. “I can’t sit still. If I don’t have multiple projects going at the same time, I get bored.”
His advice to others? “Find a hobby. Find something that excites you and dive into it. Get really absorbed in it. So many things a person could do… I’m more absorbed by reading or writing. Think [of] any kind of interest — woodworking, quilting… Stay involved.”
When asked about his next project, Reid says he has a book already “75% completed.” The book, written in collaboration with another photographer, is about macrophotography. After that, “who knows?” ML
Published in the November 2025 issue of Middleburg Life.