The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 1 July 2010
by Henry Beston
In 1925, author Henry Beston (who had written some children's literature up to that point) had a small cabin built on a remote strip of sand on the verge of the beach on Cape Cod, just south of the Nauset lighthouse. The cabin was tiny and cozy, and Beston had used it as a retreat when he decided that he loved the remote beauty of the Cape well enough to settle there for a longer period of time. For more than a year, he lived in that cabin and recorded his experiences on the Cape, the natural environment of his solitude, and some of the events, such as shipwrecks, that occurred out there. The resulting book, published in response to a challenge from his fianceé, appeared in 1928 and quickly became a classic of nature writing. His sojourn on the isolated beaches (still not yet overrun by tourists and vacation homes in the 1920s) is an enviable adventure that ultimately inspired other writers, such as Rachel Carson, and the eventual creation of the Cape Cod National Seashore, which now protects a large part of the Cape. The book is a meditation on the beauty of the shifting sands, the ferocity of the sea, and the endurance of the local fauna, particularly the many birds that reside or migrate through the Cape. Beston's love of the place grows through the book. Many passages are beautifully written and evoke a love of nature and our place in the complex pattern of life on Earth. The book is an early entry into our literature of the environment. Beston even talks about the affect of floating oil on sea birds (the tragic pollution that remains a major threat more than eighty years later). But, in the end, the book is about love for the environment, and a recognition of our place within it. Today, the Cape continues to evolve; much of it preserved, but the remainder feels the pressure of population, development and ever-increasing tourism. (Beston's cottage survived until 1978, when it was finally swept away in a storm.) This is the fate of many of what used to be remote places. Today, no spot in the United States is more than ninety miles from the nearest McDonald's restaurant. Nothing is truly wilderness any more. How can we now regain the meditative beauty that Beston experienced?