Category: Book Review

At the Inside Story, I chanced to find a copy of Walt Whitman’s book, Leaves of Grass. The First (1855) Edition.

It includes a lengthy editors introduction by Malcolm Cowley – 37 pages, followed by Whitman’s Introduction 19 pages. This is followed by twelve poems – 120 pages. To date, I am part way through the first poem. This is not easy reading..

Meanwhile, I continue to receive Brain Pickings, twice per week..

”Walt Whitman, felled by a paralytic stroke, he considered what makes life worth living and instructed himself: ”Tone your wants and tastes down enough, and make much of negatives, and more daylight and the skies””.

“He spared himself the additional self-inflicted suffering of outrage at how his body failed him – perhaps because, having proclaimed himself the poet of the Body and the poet of the Soul, he understood the two to be one. He squandered no emotional energy on the expectation that his suddenly disabled body perform a counter possible feat against reality to let him enjoy his beloved tree workouts and daily excursions to the river. He simply edited his expectations to accord with his new reality and sought to find joy there, within these new parameters of being.”

In the same Brain Pickings, there is a link to John Burroughs book ‘Whitman: A Study’.

Meanwhile, from Emergence Magazine, Kathleen Dean Moore Listen : four love songs. Regent Honeyeaters, Western Meadowlank, Brown-headed Cowbird and Red- winged Blackbird.

(photo by Kathrin Swoboda)

”When we listen, we open ourselves to new, joyous relationships with species other than our own.”

On our way to New Glasgow, we stopped at West Brooklyn to pick up the newly bound books by Legge Conservation Services (see earlier blog post HERE). They now have a new lease on life.

Acknowledgements

Edward added the links and graphics. Heather and Siqsiq travelled the backroads of Nova Scotia with me.

Postscript

‘Forests are not renewable’: the felling of Sweden’s ancient trees | Environment | The Guardian

References

Walt Whitman, 1986, Leaves of Grass, The First (1855) Edition, Penguin Classics

Brain Pickings. April 18th,2021. The Stoic remedy for when people let you down.

Emergence Magazine. April 18th,2021, Celebrating Earth Week.

This week , I needed to find some ‘light reading’. I packed up a box of books to take to the Endless Shores bookstore in Bridgetown. They will give me credit towards any book that I might purchase.

When I was last in Bridgetown library they had a display copy of “Nova Scotia: Window on the Sea”. However, it could not be taken out of the library. I found a copy at Endless Shores. It was written in 1973. Buckler wrote the text to accompany the photographs by Hans Weber (see fiftieth anniversary note HERE).

Would the writing continue the style from Ox Bells and Fireflies 1968? Included are five essays: Amethysts and Dragonflies, Mast and Anchors, Man and Snowman, Faces and Universes, Counterfeit and Coin (see posts, Chance Encounters and Pastoral Economy).

In Buckler’s words, “Nova Scotia is nearly an island, nearly the last place left where place and people are not thinned or adulterated with graftings that grow across the grain.” p.12 or

“It’s mountains take on no Cabot lordliness. They chat like uncles with their nephew valleys.”p.12.

“Nova Scotia is the face from Genesis and the face from Ruth. The face from Greco and the face from Rubens. The life of Faulkner and the life from Hardy…..It is a dictionary where the seasons look up their own meanings and test them. It is a sea-son where men can man their own helms.” p.16

After finding Buckler, I went on a search for George Orwell (Eric Blair). I found “Animal Farm” but was not ready to read it. Instead I chanced on Wendell Berry, “Home Economics: fourteen essays“. The last essay is titled “Does Community have a Value?” It describes farming in the hilly country near Port Royal (Kentucky) in 1938.

“The local community must understand itself finally as a community of interest — a common dependence on a common life and a common ground. And because, a community is, by definition, placed, its success cannot be divided from the success of its place, its natural setting and surroundings : its soils, forests, grasslands, plants and animals, water, light and air. The two economies, the natural and the human, support each other; each is the other’s hope of a durable and a livable life.” p.192.

I think the same is true for Nova Scotia.

Acknowledgements

Jennifer Crouse, owner of the Endless Shores Books and other Treasures. Edward added the graphics. Heather shared our weekend reading of Voice of the People, Chronicle Herald March 27 D4. Are we ‘tree-huggers’ or’sub-hillbillies’ ?

References

Ernest Buckler and Hans Weber, 1973, Nova Scotia: Window on the Sea, McClelland and Stewart Ltd.

Wendell Berry, 1987, Home Economics: Fourteen essays by Wendell Berry, North point Press.

Postscript

I wanted to title the blog ‘Buckler and Blair’ to correspond with the Ernest Blair Experiment but had to settle for Buckler and Berry.

Last weekend we were at the New Glasgow library. I was looking for a specific Harry Thurston book for Heather’s Dad. While there, I discovered The Magic Ground, written by Harold Horwood. It includes an essay ‘In Defence of Hobby Farms’. The following paragraph on p.54 caught my attention.

“That is one of the reasons why I live on the shores of the Annapolis Basin, why I spend so much time in a woodlot and an orchard and among flower borders, why I choose to work here, surrounded by life triumphant, instead of in a great city, where death seems likely to succeed. Here I can hope that my work will inspire people, fill them with confidence, help them to love the world rather than dread its terrors.”

Subsequent research online, unearthed M.A. thesis by Rochelle Mary Spracklin at Memorial University, “Didacticism in the Fictional Work of Harold Horwood’, 1990.

Also referenced was a book of poetry, published by Gaspereau Press, Cycle of the Sun: A lament for northern Labrador. In Horwood’s own words, “the poet, Harry Thurston was in the audience and came to me and asked to be allowed to submit the poem to his publisher, Gaspereau Press”.

I will enjoy the remaining essays in the Magic Ground, while I wait to see if I can obtain a copy of Cycle of the Sun, through Jaki at the Lawrencetown library.

Acknowledgements

Jaki Fraser at the Lawrencetown library. Edward for his additions. Heather for sharing the drive to New Glasgow.

References

Harold Horwood, 1996, The Magic Ground, Nimbus Publishing.

Rochelle Mary Spracklin, Didacticism in the Fictional Works of Harold Horwood, M.A. thesis 1990, research.library.mun.ca

Harold Horwood, 2003, Cycle of the Sun, Gaspereau Press

Harold Horwood at encyclopedia.com

This week, I received a parcel in the mail from Amazon. It contained a book and a game, from Patrick and family, for my birthday. The book was Under a White Sky: the Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert. The game was Exit the Game. Dead Man on the Orient Express. (Have not checked out the game, yet)

Kolbert won the Pulitzer Prize for her previous book, The Sixth Extinction. She is a staff writer at the New Yorker. Heather had read the Sixth Extinction, and enjoyed it. “In The Sixth Extinction, Kolbert explored the ways in which our capacity for destruction has reshaped the natural world”. Patrick selected the book because he had not seen any blog references.

Kolbert divides her current book into three sections: Down the River; Into the Wild; Up in the Air. Down the River describes the diversion of the Chicago River, the invasive carp species, and the changes in the Mississippi’s hydrology. Into the Wild includes chapters on the endangered Pupfish in Death Valley, the global threats to the coral reefs, and invasive cane toads in Australia. The final section, Up in the Air, includes a chapter on climate change and the Greenland ice sheet.

In the words of the author:
“This has been a book about people trying to solve problems created by people trying to solve problems.”

My response to Kolbert’s book was to head back to my bookcase. Did not Stewart Brand talk about similar issues in Whole Earth Discipline: an Ecopragmatist Manifesto in 2009 ? On the same shelf, I noticed John Ralston Saul’s The Unconscious Civilization. Where does that fit ?

Another perspective can be found in the current Brain Pickings, February 21st. There, you will find reference to the writing of William Vogt, Road to Survival.

Postscript

Friday morning, we dropped into the Bridgetown Library. I picked up a copy of Paradis Terrestre. It is a history of the village of Paradise, Nova Scotia compiled by members of the Paradise Women’s Institute. I was interested in Chapter 13, Micmac Memories. At the entrance to the Library, I noted a collection of books by, and about Ernest Buckler. Must check out, next time.

Today (Sunday) we skied the Rifle Range Road. It was hard going. Now, that the surrounding trees have been clear-cut, the trail is more exposed to the sunlight. This makes for heavier snow, especially in the late afternoon.

By the way, Edward and I share the same birthday, 14th February.

Acknowledgements

Patrick for the birthday gift. Edward for his artistic support. Heather for sharing the reading and the skiing.

References

Elizabeth Kolbert, 2021, Under a White Sky: the Nature of the Future, Penguin Random House

Stewart Brand, 2009, Whole Earth Discipline: an Ecopragmatist Manifesto, Viking (Penguin Random House).

John Ralston Saul, 1995, The Unconscious Civilization, House of Anansi.

Paradis Terrestre: a History of the Village of Paradise, Nova Scotia. Compiled by members of the Paradise Women’s Institute.

Brain Pickings February 21, 2021, Road to Survival.

I received two books for Christmas from Patrick; Zena Hitz’ “Lost in Thought” and Lars Mytting’s, “Norwegian Wood”.

Hitz book is subtitled ‘The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life’. From the dust cover:

“Hitz says our intellectual lives are valuable not despite but because of their practical uselessness. And while anyone can have an intellectual life, she encourages academics in particular to get back in touch with the desire to learn for its own sake, and calls on universities to return to person-to-person transmission of the habits of mind and heart that bring out the best in us.”

Lars Mytting’s book is subtitled ‘Chopping, stacking and drying wood the Scandinavian Way’. Myttling talks about his neighbour, Ottar.

“For a man who had suffered his way through a long winter, struggling against age and ill health, here at last was a job where things made sense again. Once more he was able to enjoy the feeling of doing something meaningful, and the sense of calm security that comes to the man who knows he is well prepared, he is early, he has time on his side.”

In New Glasgow, John Stewart had two new books on his coffee table.

John Tattrie’s, “Peace by Chocolate”, and Donald Savoie’s “Thanks for the Business”.

Both books are about entrepreneurs. “Peace by Chocolate” describes the incredible journey by the Hadhad family from war-torn Syria to Antigonish, Nova Scotia, where they have re-established their chocolate making business. In “Thanks for the Business”, Donald Savoie describes the Irving Oil business in Atlantic Canada. He explains why ‘ I hold the view that Atlantic Canada needs to look to entrepreneurs and the private sector to grow their economy ‘.

Closer to home, in Lawrencetown, Annapolis County, we have another entrepreneurial example of the den Haan family who emigrated from Holland. Today, they are the primary supplier of cucumbers and other salad products in the region. As seen from our home, the night sky is illuminated in the direction of their greenhouses.

Acknowledgements

Patrick Maher for his online selection of Christmas books. John Stewart for access to his holiday reading. Heather for her photograph of the night sky. Edward for bringing together the graphics.

References

Zena Hitz, 2020, Lost in Thought: the hidden pleasures of an intellectual life, Princeton University Press.

Lars Mytting, 2020, Norwegian Wood: chopping, stacking and drying wood the Scandinavian way, Abrams Image.

John Tattrie, 2020, Peace by Chocolate: the Hadhad Family’s remarkable journey from Syria to Canada, Goose Lane Editions.

Donald J. Savoie, 2020, Thanks for the Business: KC Irving, Arthur Irving and the Story of Irving Oil, Nimbus Publishing.