Monadnock: More than a Mountain

by Craig Brandon

The most climbed mountain in North America, Mount Monadnock in southern New Hampshire has a long and interesting history from visits by Thoreau and Emerson to the 100,000 people who hike it each year. This books includes the literary and artistic impact it has had on artists for more than a century and the efforts to preserve it.

Genres: Nonfiction

415 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2007

About the author

The Wall Street Journal compared Craig's most recent book, The Five-Year Party" with Tom Wolfe's "I Am Charlotte Simmons" and it has been featured in The Huffington Post, The Atlantic, Forbes, ABC News, CNN, the Chronicle of Higher Education and dozens of blogs and online journals.

He spent 20 years as a newspaper reporter, 12 as a college writing teacher and now spends all his time on book projects. He lives with his wife in a small cottage on the side of a hill in Surry, New Hampshire.

Reviews

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have climbed Mt Monadnock a number of times. I actually took it for granted, it was a satisfying climb not to long not too short. At the top you were rewarded with a breathtaking view and many others to share it with.
I never knew what a complex history it had, and was deemed magical and mysterious to some, until I read Craig Brandon's book.
The mountain is not just there. It took the efforts of many people in order to preserve it. I never new there were streams of visitors from Boston who took the train into Troy. That it became a resort area for the wealthy, with a number of hotels surrounding it. Their was a toll road leading to a populalar half-way lodge off the trail.
Brandon points out Monadnock is the second most climbed mt. in the world behind Mt. Fuji in Japan.
Monadnock attracted a lot of intellectuals including artist, poets and writers, and had a nearby artist colony.
The popularity of Monadnock is mine boggling with estimates of 125,000 a year, 1700 people on trails at the same time 4500 visitors on a weekend. Though I don't think it is as popular now, as it was in the earlier years.
Thoreau and Emerson were climbers of the mt. Thoreau climbed Monadnock 4X. and camped on the Mt. I thought the author was unfair to Thoreau quoting a source that: "some thought" Thoreau had an affair with his best friend Emerson's wife, while contradicting this by quoting another source that Thoreau was a repressed homosexual, based on the assumption he had male friends and used writing and love of nature to sublimate his hidden desires? Another weak and nebulous claim that Thoreau was ant-social-In what sense? He didn't drink, he was vegetarian, he had many friends, he was certainly not violent. He did live alone in a cabin on Walden ponder two years, but he had many visitors and visited friends. He wasn't a hermit.
Aside from these debatable conclusions that didn't belong in a hikers guide. I thought the book was very interesting and thoroughly researched. I would recommend it to anyone planning on hiking Monadnock and anyone who has already had the experience.