One of Rachel Carson's favorite books, which is enough of a recommendation, written in long hand "on the kitchen table overlooking the North Atlantic and the dunes, the little room full of the yellow sunlight reflected from the sands and the great sound of the sea."

The Outermost Web Site




Pre-numbered label used for registration.

When I began to read this book, I grabbed a bookmark from a pile, and fortuitously took the one that has on it a poem entitled "Ocean Poem".

Henry Beston built a small house atop a dune on Eastham bar, his nearest neighbors the coast guard at Nauset, two miles away. Going there in September with the intention of spending a fortnight, he lingered, "the beauty and mystery of this earth and outer sea so possessed and held me that I could not go." So he stayed for a year. This is the journal of that year.

A good nature writer must be a good observer, and Beston certainly was. He paid attention. To the "tracks of hungry crows . . . the webbed impressions of a gull", the sound of the ocean, the shape of a wave, the swarming of butterflies. He made me smell the ocean, feel the tide and sand between my toes.

He teaches the beauty and the danger, as he writes of the shipwrecks that winter, of a deer trapped in the freezing water, the bravery of the Coast Guard. Nature gives us lovely things, but she takes her due.

And he writes of the dangers caused by men:
"A new danger, moreover, now threatens the birds at sea. An irreducible residue of crude oil, called by refiners "slop," remains still after oil distillation, and this is pumped into southbound tankers and emptied far offshore. This wretched pollution floats over large area, and the birds light in it and get it on their feathers. They inevitably die." Things haven't changed.

An unexpected gift. At one point, Beston is describing "sea horses", "waves rolling in fighting a strong breeze . . . the manes of white, sun brilliant spray streaming behind them for thirty and even forty feet . . . If you would see them at their best, come to this beach on a bright October day when a northwest wind is billowing off to sea across the moors." And someone (perhaps Martha Chester, whose name is written on the cover?) has written in the margin, "We did! Oct. 12, '63".

I leave you with his closing words, take them to heart:

"Do no dishonour to the earth lest you dishonour the spirit of man. Hold your hands out over the earth as over a flame. To all who love her, who open to her the doors of their veins, she gives of her strength, sustaining them with her own measureless tremor of dark life. Touch the earth, love the earth, honour the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places. For the gifts of life are the earth's and they are given to all, and they are the songs of birds at daybreak, Orion and the Bear, and dawn seen over ocean from the beach."

I have just seen on the Outermost Web Site that 2004 is the 40th Anniversary of The Outermost House being declared a National Literary Landmark. I think I shall have to find a way to send this book home.

Released on Friday, May 28, 2004 at Mailed to a fellow Bookcrosser in n/a, n/a Controlled Releases.

Off to GoryDetails.

The book arrived safely in today's mail, along with the "Ocean Poem" bookmark [glad you passed that along too!] and the "pet peeve" postcard - which reminds me, have I told you about Drusilla's latest chipmunk?

Oh, sorry, book journalling. So the book's here and looks lovely, and if it tempts me to hare off to Cape Cod to read it instead of staying home and tackling the encroaching mounds of clutter, it's all your fault. [Thanks!]

Oh, this book is lovely! Whether the author is describing storms at sea (where the crashing waves make his little cottage shake), the behavior of an astonishing variety of birds, or a nude bather enthusiastically diving into the surf, his descriptions are luscious to read and incredibly beautiful... But not saccharine, for there are tragedies, too; the author describes a good many shipwrecks, some from the past but others that took place during his stay in the house, and a few that he witnessed himself.

Since the book's a small one I made it my "carrying-around" book, which helped me to read it in tiny installments - the perfect way to savor it, and it is made to be savored. In fact I may pick up a new copy to keep and re-read at times when I'd like to be alone in a hut surrounded by waves and winter storms. By the time I finished the book it was positively studded with little scraps of paper, each marking another passage I'd wanted to quote. But since that would add up to at least half of the book, I'll stop with this one from the foreword:

'Nature is a part of our humanity, and without some awareness and experience of that divine mystery man ceases to be man. When the Pleiades and the wind in the grass are no longer a part of the human spirit, a part of very flesh and bone, man becomes, as it were, a kind of cosmic outlaw, having neither the completeness and integrity of the animal nor the birthright of a true humanity. As I once said elsewhere, "Man can either be less than man or more than man, and both are monsters the last more dread."'

I've actually been in Eastham, on a visit to BCer greedyreader, but did not know at the time that that was the setting of this book. The house was washed out to sea by a storm in 1978, but I'd have liked to go stand on the beach where it used to be. Since I do want to go to the Cape again - still haven't visited the Edward Gorey house! - perhaps I'll take this book along and release it close to home. Thanks, mojosomom!

Controlled release: Having failed to get this book back to the Cape, I thought it might as well travel some more, so I'm sending it to BCer nekki2976 in New York, to be included in an M-bag for the 2005 New Zealand BookCrossing Convention.

Arrived today.

Will be sending out in Mbag to New Zealand at the end of the week.

RELEASE NOTES:

Sending in an M-bag to FutureCat for the New Zealand Convention.

A huge sack of books arrived today - too late for the convention, unfortunately, but they'll still be greatly appreciated by the Christchurch Bookcrossers, and a few might end up travelling over to Australia for the Brisbane convention in June.

Many thanks Gory, and nekki!

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I caught this at a special get-together here in Dunedin. I met Lytteltonwitch, Futurecat, Awhina and Topkat for the first time -they were in town to attend our big 24 hour booksale. Thanks everyone for sending it to NZ, and to Futurecat for bringing it to Dunedin.
I am looking forward to reading this one, but don't know how soon I will get to it, my TBR pile has been added to quite dramatically over the weekend!

After reading the comprehensive reviews above, what is there left for me to say?
While the area and some of the wildlife and fauna mentioned in the book isn't familiar to me it didn't stop me from enjoying it. It painted such a vivid picture of the area and it's many moods, I especially enjoyed the chapter on the storm, I could just about hear the waves and the wind "...endless booming roar, a seethe and a dread grinding, all intertwined with the high scream of the wind."
It was also interesting to read about the coast guard -I hadn't realized that they used to patrol the beaches looking for vessels in distress.
Anyway thanks again for sharing this, I will have to find a suitably wild coastal spot to release it.

RELEASE NOTES:

Left on a seat near the cliff track below the Royal Albatross centre, I had been meaning to leave this book there and this was the first opportunity I have had.
Next week we are taking a car load of NZ bookcrossing convention visitors to the same place so we thought we would do a trip today in preparation.
Happy reading to the finder...