John Ruth Memoir Release

“A first-born and only son, I opened my eyes in a sprawling 122-year-old farmhouse along a pleasant creek in southeastern Pennsylvania ,” writes well-known Mennonite historian, John Landis Ruth, in his forthcoming book, Branch: A Memoir with Pictures. As eighty-three year old Ruth tells his story through photos and essays, readers get a rich glimpse of his life but also the Mennonite family and community in which he was raised.

john ruth memoir

In small coffee-table style, each of the 210 two-page spreads opens to a mini-essay paired with a full-page picture.  Ruth chose this format “to explore synergy between a lifetime’s collection of pictures and the words they may call forth.”

“In the end this is a love story—love of family, love of community and church—all anchored in an enduring, classic Mennonite faith.”  – Dick Benner, editor, The Canadian Mennonite

The 432-page, hard-bound memoir, priced at $25.00, will be released at a book-signing at the Mennonite Heritage Center on November 21 at 7:30 p.m., with additional book-signings in the days following in Lancaster County and Waterloo, ON.

Click here for the full news release and information on all book-signings

Click here to download a promotional poster

Copies of the book will be available for purchase in the Mennonite Heritage Center Museum Store and from TourMagination in Waterloo, ON and Lancaster, PA.