By Joe Kelly

Nearly 25 years ago, when Norfolk became engulfed in a dispute over plans to transform 780 acres of land in the northwest end of town known as Yale Farm into a luxury golf course, a writer for the New Yorker, Mark Singer, got wind of the story and came to town to investigate.

The result was a 5,000-word piece, the most extensive, nuanced, in-depth article ever to appear about Norfolk in a national publication.

Singer died this past June at age 75 from cancer, ending a 52-year career at the magazine that started when when long-stand-ing editor, William Shawn, read a parody he had written of Norman Mailer and hired him two years out of Yale to write Talk of the Town pieces.

Singer spent months on the Norfolk story, attending meetings, questioning principals, following leads and tearing through archives. The piece he wrote focused less on issues such as fertilizer runoff and wetlands impacts and more on the clash of feelings and sensibilities among the various protagonists, fueled by significant wealth on both sides.

Singer was not a complete stranger to Norfolk when he wrote the story. At Yale, he had become friends with well-known photographer and community stalwart Chris Little. Both worked at the Yale alumni magazine, which was then being edited by William Zinsser, the legendary writing teacher who went on to author the best -selling book, “On Writing Well.” “Bill had a big impact on both of us but especially on Mark,” recalled Little. “Bill really shaped Mark as a writer.”

When Little was living in New York City in the late 1970s, Singer featured him in two Talk of the Town pieces chronicling the lengths Little and his friends underwent to host viewing parties of the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”—no easy feat in the days before video cassette recorders and streaming. Singer’s article about Norfolk, The Haves and the Haves, is available to New Yorker subscribers on newyorker.com and included in Singer’s book, “Somewhere in America: Under the Radar with Chicken Warriors, Left-Wing Patriots, Angry Nudists, and Others.” To read the pieces about Chris Little, use the links at https://christopherlittle.com/life/.