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The Big Book of Country Living
Ernest Thompson Seton; Foreword by Noel Perrin
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R873
R736
Discovery Miles 7 360
Save R137 (16%)
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In a single volume Ernest Thompson Seton, renowned naturalist,
writer, artist, and founding leader of the Boy Scouts of America,
presents one of the most comprehensive guides to the outdoors ever
written. Originally published in 1922 as The Book of Woodcraft,
this work represents the culmination of years of observation and
experience in the wilderness. Within these pages lie instructions
and anecdotes—some expected, some delightfully
unanticipated—regarding literally hundreds of arts, crafts,
skills, and games. Here one can learn to distinguish edible plants
from poisonous ones; start a fire using only a jackknife; build a
four-store birdhouse out of a wooden box; communicate in sign
language; tie a variety of essential knots; identify trees,
wildflowers, animals, birds, and constellations; and much, much
more. Abundantly illustrated with the author's own handsome
pen-and-ink drawings, this classic outdoor handbook is both a
cherished piece of American history and a useful tool in preserving
and communing with nature.
In the spring of 1991, Noel Perrin flew from Vermont to California
to pick up his new electric car. He planned to bring it home over
the Sierras and the Rockies, a 3100-mile drive. It would not be
easy. An electric car like his can go about 50 miles; then you have
to stop for six to eight hours and recharge. When he got back to
Vermont, he put the car into daily service as a commuter vehicle -
thus driving to and from his job at Dartmouth College without
causing any pollution. This book tells the story of both the trip
and the commuting. From the time Perrin gets taken to a flying
saucer factory in Davis, California, to the time he meets a man
with four electric cars in Rotterdam, New York, here are his
adventures on the road. Eventually he did get home, though not
quite in the way he expected. The car, by now named Solo, turns to
commuting and is a complete success. Among other things, it wins
its owner one of the rare reserved parking places at Dartmouth.
"There's going to be a boom in electric cars around here", predicts
a cynical colleague. "People will do anything for a parking place".
Interwoven with Solo's story is the larger story of electric cars
in America. Scarce now, they have a distinguished past and a bright
future. Ninety years ago they were the favorite vehicle of city
aristocrats. In 1903, for example, the six wealthy Guggenheim
brothers in New York owned nine electric cars - and employed
chauffeurs. The first 50 women drivers, without exception, drove
electrics. Tiffany's bought electric delivery trucks. President
Woodrow Wilson took drives from the White House in his electric
car, with a Secret Service agent chugging along behind in a
gasoline vehicle. Henry Fordowned three. No wonder. Electric cars
were cleaner, quieter, and more reliable than early gasoline cars.
After a 70-year hiatus, electrics are now making a major comeback.
Aristocrats - including Prince Philip of England - are again
driving them. General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler are all gearing up
to produce them. So is every car company in Japan. In Europe, Fiat
and Peugot are currently selling electrics - and a dozen other
companies are racing to join them. Some of these cars will be
hybrids, with a virtually unlimited range. Others will be pure
electrics. But most will have improved batteries that provide a
range of 100 or even 200 miles. There's a good chance you will be
driving an electric car, two or five or at most ten years from now.
What's it going to be like? This lively book will tell you.
One of America's finest essayists writes about 40 literary
masterpieces that have been wrongfully forgotten or were ignored in
the first place.
Any parent dismayed by the rows of Goosebumps books dominating the
children's sections of most bookstores, any grandparent concerned
about the Nintendo induced glaze over a grandchild's eyes, and any
loving adult wishing a child to know good books will celebrate Noel
Perrin's latest collection of essays. His earlier guide to
neglected adult literature, A Reader's Delight, achieved the status
of a classic, and now he has written a companion volume dedicated
to children's fiction. Perrin's wit and engaging prose are, as
always, in constant evidence, but it is his intuitive grasp of what
makes a story work for children that renders this new book an
essential resource for any home where books are valued.
Limiting his scope to those works already overlooked or in danger
of slipping from view, Perrin leads us through a wide spectrum of
fiction, ranging from stories for the very youngest listeners to
nuanced novels for the adolescent reader. There is something here
for every child: dolls and their houses; animals of varied talents
and personalities; travels through time and space; romances
promised, sometimes failed, sometimes realized; castles and
battling warriors; magic of familiar as well as alien worlds;
historical bits woven into textured stories. Richard Adams, Leslie
Brooke, Arthur Conan Doyle, Wanda Gag, Rumer Godden, Anne
Lindbergh, Hugh Lofting, Jean Merrill, Ernest Thompson Seton,
Margery Sharp, Dodie Smith, and others know what it feels like to
be a kid in an adult world. As does Noel Perrin -- and so will the
readers of A Child's Delight.
Noel Perrin's delightful account of building a sugarhouse and
making maple sugar in Vermont first appeared twenty years ago. Like
a sturdy New England farmhouse, Perrin has added to it over the
years to reflect his subsequent sugaring experiences, and includes
in this latest edition a "postpostpostscript." His celebration of
simple, hard work to produce a "quite wonderful, maybe even sacred
article" has not been diminished by plastic tubing, thrip
infestations, and the strange new market for Vermont sap water.
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