The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod [Large Print] [Hardcover]

 

 

Create your own review

Henry Beston wanted to find his voice as a writer. He had served as an ambulance driver in France during WWI and since then had earned a living on children's fairy tales and magazine articles. He fell under the spell of Outer Cape Cod while writing about the coast guardsmen stationed at Eastham, and in 1925 had a small cottage built in the dunes between ocean and marsh. There he spent much of the next two years, finding his voice as a writer and much more. The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod, published in late 1928, is the eloquent result. Never out of print since its publication, it has always been one of the most influential classics of nature writing. His strength was not scientific observation, but the exploration of our relationship with nature.

Alone on the beach, he lived in his 20x16-foot cabin, which he called the Fo'castle for its ship-like economy of function and intimacy with the ocean and the weather. The land and sea birds, the smells and sounds of the beach, the wind, sea, sand, plants and animals--all move to the heartbeat of the year's passage. Beston's writing is both detailed and metaphorical; he had the rare gift of sharing his observations without monopolizing the frame.

He was aware that Nature has its own momentum and all the occurrences about which he wrote are subject to that dominant force. An old wrecked ship, thrown up in a storm, showed its bones against the sky and then receded again. Of seals, he wrote: "They have a trick of swimming unperceived under a flock of sea ducks, seizing one of the unwary birds from underneath, and then disappearing with their mouths full of flesh and frantic feathers. A confusion follows; the survivors leap from the water with wildly beating wings, they scatter, wheel, and gather again, and presently nature has erased every sign of the struggle, and the sea rolls on as before." These life-and-death events are just a ripple in the fabric of the elemental world.

Finally in September, Beston spent a night on the beach and before dawn, "In the luminous east, two great stars aslant were rising...Betelgeuse and Bellatrix, the shoulders of Orion." His beach year at an end, the observer distilled his impressions: his reverence and gratitude for "the great natural drama," his understanding that creation is still going on, that the observation is only relevant to that moment, that "poetry is as necessary to comprehension as science." Beston was convinced that a reverence for nature must underpin all our achievements, or else they can't have true meaning. His writings influenced others who took the case forward. He moved to Maine and lived quietly with his family, never an activist, too much the literary perfectionist to ever be a prolific writer. Though he wrote several other books, none of them were quite as perfectly integrated as The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod. Much as I cherish his Maine writing, this is the book that I turn to again and again for peace and perspective.

Beston had the Fo'castle moved back from the encroaching sea a time or two, then donated it to the Audubon Society in 1959; it finally perished in "The Blizzard of '78." In 1961, forty miles and 43,500 acres of beach and dune were protected by the creation of the Cape Cod National Seashore under the stewardship of the National Park Service.

I listened to the excellent 2007 audio production (strangely, the first), read by Brett Barry. Beston's language has such a rich cadence that it's a wonderful choice for audio, especially if you are already familiar with the book. On the other hand there are so many passages that you'll want to linger over...I think most committed readers should not start their audio careers here. But whether you read or listen, you must experience this wonderful book.

Linda Bulger, 2009

If you really want to know a lot about Cape Cod start here. It is probably the best nature book ever written. Clear and well-thought, it is a journey through a single year in the Cape's history. As I side note: if you are interested in Coast Guard history you will find this book very interesting.

I had never heard of Henry Beston until a friend lent me--or, more accurately, pressed on me--his copy of The Outermost House. After reading this book, I understand his sense of urgency: this is a work of unique and lasting beauty, surely one of the greatest nature books ever written. In detailing his year in his cottage at Eastham Beach (now Coast Guard Beach) on the Atlantic side of Cape Cod, Beston combines a Thoreauvian zeal for nature and the examined life with a Proustian ability to record exactly the sight, sound, feel and scent of the world around him. Page after page is filled with unforgettable passages; his descriptions of the markings and songs of the shore birds alone are enough to move you to tears. His story of the plight of a doe caught in an icy flood is almost as suspenseful as a Hitchcock movie; his tribute to the courage of the Coast Guard "surfmen" who rescue shipwrecked sailors is particularly resonant to us who--after Sept. 11, 2001--have learned something about the value of those who safeguard the public. Beston is so quotable a writer that I'm shocked he's not better known. A few quotes should demonstrate:
"Nature is a part of our humanity, and without some awareness and experience of that divine mystery man ceases to be man."
"Man can be either less than man or more than man, and both are monsters, the last more dread."
"Poor body, time and the long years were the first tailors to teach you the merciful use of clothes! Though some scold today because you are too much seen, to my mind, you are not seen fully enough or often enough when you are beautiful."
"Poetry is as necessary to comprehension as science. It is as impossible to live without reverence as it is without joy."
Henry Beston found urban life insupportable in the mid-1920s; who could know the dismay he would feel in 2002, when computers, television and jet planes make the world pass in a blur! Beston is out to teach us how to slow down, to learn to live again according to the patterns and rhythms of nature. For those who are willing to read and understand, The Outermost House remains a haven of peace and beauty.

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 9 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

 

5.0 out of 5 stars An American classic
The Outermost House is a classic, not just of natural history literature, but of American literature. Read more

Published on Oct 7 2000 by R. J. O'Hara

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful & relaxing book
The Outermost House is one of my favorite books. Henry Beston has a wonderful writing style that produces vivid images of his year spent living in a small house on the dunes of... Read more

Published on Feb 9 2000 by kravdraa

5.0 out of 5 stars Visualize a year on the outer beach of Cape Cod
When I was about 10 years old, My father took me on a hike down Coast Guard Beach to see the Outermost House. Read more

Published on Nov 27 1999 by Andrew Gere

4.0 out of 5 stars Great reading if you are interested in nature writing
I read this book for my nature writing elective in highschool. Although I did not necessarily like nature writing before this class, the books we read, this in particular,... Read more

Published on Mar 14 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars Look out on the sea from the windows of The Outermost House.
An enduring classic, Henry Beston's The Outermost House, takes the reader on a time journey through a year in the life of the seashore of Cape Cod. Read more

Published on April 10 1998 by kwarren@pcc.edu

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic of nature writing
Rachel Carson once described The Outermost House as the sole influence on her writing, and Henry Beston's account of a solitary year by the sea has the same combination of natural... Read more

Published on April 10 1998

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 9 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

Search Listmania!