Three complete books: The Maine Woods, Walden, Cape Cod.

My Life in the Maine Woods recounts Annette Jackson’s North Woods experiences during the 1930s when she, her husband and their children lived in a small cabin on the shore of Umsaskis Lake. Jackson, an avid sportswoman and nature lover, writes of hunting, fishing, campfire cooking, and the sounds of the wilderness through the seasons. She visits trappers and woodsmen, and tells what it’s like to sleep on a bed of pine boughs under the stars that shine on the legendary Allagash.

The chief attraction that inspired Thoreau to make this canoe trip was the primitiveness of the region. Here was a vast tract of almost virgin woodland, peopled only with a few loggers and pioneer farmers, Indians, and wild animals. No one could have been better fitted than Thoreau to enjoy such a region and to transmit his enjoyment of it to others. For though he was a person of culture and refinement, with a college education, and had for an intimate friend so rare a man as Ralph Waldo Emerson, he was half wild in many of his tastes and impatient of the restraints and artificiality of the ordinary social life of the towns and cities. He liked especially the companionship of men who were in close contact with nature, and in this book we find him deeply interested in his Indian guide and lingering fondly over the man's characteristics and casual remarks. The Indian retained many of his aboriginal instincts and ways, though his tribe was in most respects civilized. His home was in an Indian village on an island in the Penobscot River at Oldtown, a few miles above Bangor. Thoreau was one of the world's greatest nature writers, and as the years pass, his fame steadily increases. He was a careful and accurate observer, more at home in the fields and woods than in village and town, and with a gift of piquant originality in recording his impressions. The play of his imagination is keen and nimble, yet his fancy is so well balanced by his native common sense that it does not run away with him. There is never any doubt about his genuineness, or that what he states is free from bias and romantic exaggeration.

The works of Henry David Thoreau contain some of the most beautifully written and inspiring observations of nature, yet most of his readers are familiar with only one of his books, Walden, Two other gems, The Maine Woods and Cape Cod, are travelogues containing some of his finest writing. Presented here are selections from the best of these two works, including Thoreau's record of his climb up Mount Katahdin, his arduous river journey by canoe down the Allegash River, the deadly shipwreck he encountered on his first trip to Cape Cod, as well as his wonderfully colorful and humorous portrait of the Wellfleet oysterman. These writings offer a vision of Thoreau struggling with the harsh realities of wild nature and how people might live in harmony with the natural world.

a t "What cannot be underestimated is Henry David Thoreau's role in the conservation of the Maine woods and in conservation thought in general. Both went far beyond his life and the confines of his native Concord. Writing in the mid-1800s, he was one of the first to describe the wild nature of these woods in terms of their emotional and ethical relationships within a conservation context. It is not entirely by chance that a considerable amount of land surrounding the roughly 200 miles that his three trips covered through the wildest part of the Maine woods has ended up with some kind of conservation protection. Thoreau brought attention to these woods through his book, The Maine Woods, published in 1864, and that attention found its way into the minds of many of those who spearheaded efforts to save some measure of their wildness. Dean Bennett began in the early 1960s to follow Thoreau's journeys into the wilderness of the Maine woods. Since then he has discovered more than fifty significant places, natural features, and elements of wilderness along Thoreau's routes, which, in most cases, Thoreau noted. These Bennett recorded with photographs, drawings, paintings, and digital art." t be underestimated is Henry David Thoreau's role in the conservation of the Maine woods and in conservation thought in general. Both went far beyond his life and the confines of his native Concord. Writing in the mid-1800s, he was one of the first to describe the wild nature of these woods in terms of their emotional and ethical relationships within a conservation context. It is not entirely by chance that a considerable amount of land surrounding the roughly 200 miles that his three trips covered through the wildest part of the Maine woods has ended up with some kind of conservation protection. Thoreau brought attention to these woods through his book, The Maine Woods, published in 1864, and that attention found its way into the minds of many of who spearheaded efforts to save some measure of their wildness.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The remarkable true story of a man who lived alone in the woods of Maine for 27 years, making this dream a reality—not out of anger at the world, but simply because he preferred to live on his own. “A meditation on solitude, wildness and survival.” —The Wall Street Journal In 1986, a shy and intelligent twenty-year-old named Christopher Knight left his home in Massachusetts, drove to Maine, and disappeared into the forest. He would not have a conversation with another human being until nearly three decades later, when he was arrested for stealing food. Living in a tent even through brutal winters, he had survived by his wits and courage, developing ingenious ways to store edibles and water, and to avoid freezing to death. He broke into nearby cottages for food, clothing, reading material, and other provisions, taking only what he needed but terrifying a community never able to solve the mysterious burglaries. Based on extensive interviews with Knight himself, this is a vividly detailed account of his secluded life—why did he leave? what did he learn?—as well as the challenges he has faced since returning to the world. It is a gripping story of survival that asks fundamental questions about solitude, community, and what makes a good life, and a deeply moving portrait of a man who was determined to live his own way, and succeeded.