Wood Lit

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…

On Sunday afternoon, I picked up Castle Freeman’s Go With Me, and started reading it around 4:00. I finished sometime after 9:00, stopping only to throw more wood in the woodstove. I…

Coastal northern California, with its rainy, temperate climate and rugged terrain, is home to some of the oldest – and tallest – trees in North America. These ancient trees, mostly…

Donald Kroodsma began his life’s work while in graduate school almost 40 years ago when he tried to figure out how a Bewick’s wren learned his songs. Does he learn songs from his father or…

Reports are increasing about the impact of world-wide deforestation on global warming. A correspondent for the U.K. news magazine, The Economist, for example, wrote in a special edition titled…

“Nature is a magic show of the highest order,” writes Bernd Heinrich in The Snoring Bird, his very seductive personal narrative. “I can hardly think of a greater grandeur and…

This anthology brings together stories, essays, and poems from 42 remarkably diverse authors, from trout-fishing notables Ernest Schwiebert and Robert Behnke to poets John Hollander and W. B…

Perhaps the most striking thing you first notice about the book Wild Neighbors (besides the stunning, full color, close-up portrait of a pileated woodpecker that graces the cover) is its size.…

Frank Tozer is part of a growing group of people who see knowledge of wild plants as an important contribution to our collective future. This pursuit of knowledge need not be just an…

If you consider that an estimated 25 percent of the energy used in the U.S. is spent heating buildings, and you feel that it would be beneficial if that energy came from sources other than the…