Thornapples: The Comings, Goings, and Outdoor Doings of a Naturalist

by Charles Fergus

For years, Charles Fergus chronicled his outdoor activities in the Pennsylvania Game News' popular "Thornapples" column and other magazines. Some of the best of his writings are now collected in this illustrated volume. Following a fox, gathering nuts, watching fireflies, tracking a bear, listening to peepers, hunting deer, searching for giant trees, camping alone-a year of adventures and rambles in the natural world, all described in vivid detail and filled with the timeless spirit of the great outdoors.

Genres: Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2001

About the author

I write a mystery series set in the 1830s in a rough-and-tumble county in backwoods Pennsylvania, where an "accidental" sheriff works to solve crimes while battling his own griefs and travails. My most recent Gideon Stoltz mystery, "Nighthawk's Wing" (Arcade Crimewise 2021), received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. It's the sequel to "A Stranger Here Below" (Arcade Crimewise, 2019), which just came out in paperback. I'm currently at work on a third in the series, with the working title "Lay This Body Down." The Gideon Stoltz mysteries take place during the Jacksonian era of American history, when our young nation was flexing its muscles and finding its identity.

Born and raised in central Pennsylvania, I now live on a farm in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. I love to spend time outdoors in all seasons, hiking, snowshoeing, and especially riding horses. I'm married to the writer Nancy Marie Brown. I have written many nature books, and my readers tell me my knowledge of natural history and wildlife helps inform my fiction.

Reviews

[Janine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so enjoying the story-telling way Fergus has of teaching about the creation around him through his experience, through his feelings, through his gained knowledge over time. It makes me want to be out in it too. Each chapter asks me to come and sit, walk, paddle out among the wildness that is still there.
It teaches me even further, how I might do that and do that well.