"The more you transform your life from the material to the
spiritual domain, the less you become afraid of death." Leo Tolstoy
spoke these words, and they became Henry Stuart's raison d'etre.
"The Poet of Tolstoy Park "is the unforgettable novel based on the
true story of Henry Stuart's life, which was reclaimed from his
doctor's belief that he would not live another year.
Henry responds to the news by slogging home barefoot in the rain.
It's 1925. The place: Canyon County, Idaho. Henry is sixty-seven, a
retired professor and a widower who has been told a warmer climate
would make the end more tolerable. San Diego would be a good
choice.
Instead, Henry chose Fairhope, Alabama, a town with utopian ideals
and a haven for strong-minded individualists. Upton Sinclair,
Sherwood Anderson, and Clarence Darrow were among its inhabitants.
Henry bought his own ten acres of piney woods outside Fairhope.
Before dying, underscored by the writings of his beloved Tolstoy,
Henry could begin to "perfect the soul awarded him" and rest in the
faith that he, and all people, would succeed, "even if it took
eons." Human existence, Henry believed, continues in a perfect
circle unmarred by flaws of personality, irrespective of blood and
possessions and rank, and separate from organized religion. In
Alabama, until his final breath, he would chase these high ideas.
But first, Henry had to answer up for leaving Idaho. Henry's
dearest friend and intellectual sparring partner, Pastor Will Webb,
and Henry's two adult sons, Thomas and Harvey, were baffled and
angry that he would abandon them and move to the Deep South, living
in a barn there while he built a round house of handmade concrete
blocks. Hisnew neighbors were perplexed by his eccentric behavior
as well. On the coldest day of winter he was barefoot, a
philosopher and poet with ideas and words to share with anyone who
would listen. And, mysteriously, his "last few months" became
years. He had gone looking for a place to learn lessons in dying,
and, studiously advanced to claim a vigorous new life.
"The Poet of Tolstoy Park "is a moving and irresistible story, a
guidebook of the mind and spirit that lays hold of the heart. Henry
Stuart points the way through life's puzzles for all of us,
becoming in this timeless tale a character of such dimension that
he seems more alive now than ever.
"From the Hardcover edition."
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