Wood Lit

N. Scott Momaday writes, in The Man Made of Words, “The storyteller’s place, within the context of his language, must include both geographical and mythic frame of reference. Within that…

One morning I followed a link sent to me by a friend and found that I had been quoted in The New York Times. That’s not a thing that happens often to woodshop teachers. The article cited my…

Amongst the multitudes of wildlife field guides, Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods (With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts) is unique in that it deals exclusively with animals that do not…

Over the past 100 years, the Maine Forest Service has published 14 editions of a book (originally a booklet) called The Forest Trees of Maine. To celebrate the centenary, the newest edition…

Henry David Thoreau looms over us from the depths of history, a towering person, important we’re told, a giant of his age, yet vaguely threatening, unpleasantly Puritanical, and more than a…

An Atlas of the Connecticut River Watershed in Vermont and New Hampshire The Connecticut River divides and connects the Twin States yet borders the less-populated side of both. As a result,…

Research suggests that female wood frogs exercise no choice in their mate; rather, the male frog “chooses” them. “Why then,” Bernd Heinrich asks in his new book, “do male wood frogs…

Any reader might well ask, on first hefting this 586-page book, “Isn’t it too long?” This reader’s answer is an unqualified “No.” I can’t claim I read it in one sitting, but if…

Biology, History, and the Fate of an Endangered Species Every once in a while, a book comes along that defies categorization. Such is the wonderful, slithering conundrum that author Jon Furman…

I started hiking in the late 1940s and early 1950s when owning a customized pair of leather boots made by

If James MacGillivray, creator of the Paul Bunyan tales, were to collaborate on a book with Stephen King and the Brothers Grimm, the result might be something like this collection of stories…

I must admit to harboring serious skepticism when I saw this book from the Forest History Society. How could anyone summarize the history of American attitudes and public policies toward the…

Whether you know the Adirondacks as home, second home, vacation destination, spot on the map, or not at all, you’ll certainly have a deeper understanding of the place after reading Philip G.…

Tom Whalen, of Marshfield Hills, Massachusetts, and Whitefield, New Hampshire, and his mentor of 25 years, Dale Butterworth of Cumberland, Maine, have parlayed their long-time interest in…

Written by award-winning science journalist Alan Weisman, The World Without Us is an imaginative blend of science and fiction. One early reviewer dubbed it “an audacious intellectual…

It’s a positive spin on the long canoe trip. No signs of the hypothermia that can result from an early spring downpour or dunking. No welts from the blackfly or mosquito attacks of summer.…

The Timber-Frame Home By Tedd Benson Taunton Press, 1997 Timber framing has become very popular the Northeast in the past 35 years as people have rediscovered the beauty and history of this…

Somewhere in a marsh in northern Ohio stands an 85-foot-tall American chestnut tree. The existence of this tree, one of only a handful of its kind to survive chestnut blight, remained a secret…

For many of us who have considered, tried, succeeded, or failed in growing ginseng, help is here in W. Scott Persons’s updated Ginseng, Goldenseal and Other Woodland Medicinals. Written with…

On August 13, 1913, Joe Knowles, without clothing, shoes, tools, or food, walked into the woods near Eustis, Maine, for a two-month publicity stunt that pitted man against the elements. For…