The Good Life, by Scott and Helen Nearing . This book takes the principles of Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, to heart .
What? You haven't read Walden, shame on you.
In The Good Life you are getting two of Scott and Helen's books, Living the Good Life and Continuing the Good Life.
Scott and Helen were educators and in 1932 at the height of the Great Depression moved from New York City to a run-down farm in Vermont, hoping to live a simple life. The Good Life chronicles their adventure in great detail. From telling how to build with stone, to raising a garden in an 85 day growing season ( and eating year round from the garden with very little canning and no refrigerator) , to stumbling unto their cash crop from their Maple trees. Doing all of this with only laboring for half of their time. They believed half of ones life should be devoted to leisure.
In Continuing the Good Live, Scott and Helen were at the age when most people are thinking about retirement, move from Vermont to Maine and start over. Their place in Vermont had become so popular ( from Scott's writings) that they thought of it as a "zoo".
Scott and Helen have almost a "cult following" in the back to nature community.
2 comments:
Ooh, I love your book reviews. I just requested, from my library, Living the Good Life. Somehow I missed knowing about these authors . . . but I'm about to catch up on my cultural knowledge.
Thanks.
This is one of the books my parents read when they went back to the land in 1976 and a few years ago I also read it. It contained so much good advice and I also enjoyed picturing Helen and Scott and their farm.
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