Summer

A passionate argument that a vacation without nature isn't really a vacation at all. Dallas Lore Sharp writes with conviction that true restoration of the self can only happen in fields and woods, far from houses and cities. His philosophy roots itself in the belief that nature study is essential for education, emotional growth, and imagination - that the wild things of the world cannot be known from books or windows, only from direct encounter. The book chronicles Sharp's summer of 1912, interweaving practical advice for the aspiring nature tramp with vivid accounts of rabbit-roads, huckleberry-patches, and the secret lives of woodland creatures. There is an undercurrent of urgency here, a sense that even in 1912 the wild was slipping away, and that every reader must find their own path to the woods before it disappears entirely. Sharp's prose rewards patient readers with observations that feel both ancient and startlingly fresh.