WILLOUGHBY BOOK TALK

CO-SPONSORED BY THE BRANFORD LAND TRUST

AS PART OF ITS ‘SALT MARSH CELEBRATION’ EVENT SERIES

The Outermost House: A Year of Life

on the Great Beach of Cape Cod

by Henry Beston

The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod by Henry Beston is a seminal work of American nature writing that chronicles a year spent living on the dunes of Cape Cod between the Atlantic and the Nauset salt marsh. Published in 1928, it helped inspire the creation of the Cape Cod National Seashore.

[T]he classic book about Cape Cod, "written with simplicity, sympathy, and beauty" (New York Herald Tribune).

A chronicle of a solitary year spent on a Cape Cod beach, The Outermost House has long been recognized as a classic of American nature writing. Henry Beston had originally planned to spend just two weeks in his seaside home, but was so possessed by the mysterious beauty of his surroundings that he found he "could not go."

Instead, he sat down to try and capture in words the wonders of the magical landscape he found himself in thrall to: the migrations of seabirds, the rhythms of the tide, the windblown dunes, and the scatter of stars in the changing summer sky. Beston argued that, "The world today is sick to its thin blood for the lack of elemental things, for fire before the hands, for water, for air, for the dear earth itself underfoot." Seventy-five years after they were first published, Beston's words are more true than ever.

[Source: MacMillan Publishers]

This book talk is presented in collaboration with the Branford Land Trust as it launches its Jarvis Creek Farm Salt Marsh Migration and Restoration Project. In celebration of the salt marsh it is sponsoring a series of free, fun & educational activities for all ages to learn about the importance of salt marshes. For more info: branfordlandtrust.org