The Northern Farm: A Glorious Year on a Small Maine Farm

Henry Beston is best known for writing about his solo Cape Cod beach experience in "The Outermost House." A few years later he married author Elizabeth Coatsworth, and they bought a farm in Maine. First published in 1948, "Northern Farm" recounts a calendar year's worth of rural life in that northern clime. Brrrr. The chronological narrative begins as the Bestons return to their snow-covered fields and ice-capped pond after celebrating the Christmas season with friends in New York. Each chapter combines factual events with entries from Beston's farm diary, plus his summary philosophical statements. And boy, does winter sure seem to last a long time! It frames the progression of the book. Thankfully Beston takes the opportunity to describe the wildlife he's able to encounter between snowstorms. An overwhelming sense of community surfaces here as well. Remember: this story takes place in a farming landscape just after WWII, before a television could be found in every living room, and when people relied on each other for help during challenging times. They were the kind of times when you left a lantern burning in the front room so that you could more easily find your way home after attending a church supper on a rainy night. "The good old days," for some. In addition to his notes about managing a small farm and following Nature's course, Beston ruminates about international issues. The war is still fresh in his mind, and he needs to speak about it. Read in post-9/11 times, his comments strike an eerie chord of familiarity. For example: "No age in history can afford to lay too much emphasis upon 'security.' The truth is from our first breath to our last we inhabit insecurely a world which must of transitory nature be insecure, and that moreover any security we do achieve is but a kind of an illusion. While admitting that a profound instinct towards such safety as we can achieve is part of our animal being, let us also confess that the challenge involved in mere existence is the source of many of the greater virtues of human character." (page 47, in my paperback copy) Wow! And that's just one of his astute observations. "Northern Farm" describes a simpler time and place that we'll never see again, regretfully. This is a book well worth tracking down. Just be prepared for A LOT of winter!

This is a delightful work. The writing is superb. It is a quick read, too quick. I wish it went on for several hundred pages more. It is one of those books that once you finish it the next book you read seems flat and dull. It is about a year he spent on his farm in Maine. It is filled with wonderful, arftul, inciteful, descriptive glimpses into this world and humanity. It stirs the soul and has a way of making one want to go right outside and plant something. A great read for anyone who likes nature or great writing in general.