Reading the mountains of home
By: John Elder.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 253
Subjects: Elder, John, 1947-; Frost, Robert, 1874-1963; Natural history -- Vermont -- Bristol Region.; Hiking -- Vermont -- Bristol Region.; Bristol Region (Vt.) -- Description and travel.; Bristol Region (Vt.) -- History.; Green Mountains (Vt.) -- Description and travel.
Description: Over the course of a year, Elder takes us on his hikes through the forested uplands between South Mountain and North Mountain, reflecting on the forces of nature, from the descent of the glaciers to the rush of the New Haven River, that shaped a plateau for his village of Bristol; and on the human will that denuded and farmed and abandoned the mountains so many years ago.

His forays wind through the flinty relics of nineteenth-century homesteads and Abenaki settlements, leading to meditations on both human failure and the possibility for deeper communion with the land and others. An exploration of the body and soul of a place, an interpretive map of its natural and literary life, Reading the Mountains of Home strikes a balance between the pressures of civilization and the attraction of wilderness.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [239]-240) and index.