Living at the End of Time: Two Years in a Tiny House

by John Hanson Mitchell

In this second book in his Scratch Flat Chronicles, John Hanson Mitchell tells how he set out to recreate Henry David Thoreau’s two years at Walden Pond in a replica of Thoreau’s cabin. Mitchell lived off the grid, without running water or electricity, in a tiny house not half a mile from a major highway and in the shadow of a massive new computer company. Nevertheless, his contact with wildlife, the changing seasons, and the natural world equaled and even surpassed Thoreau’s. Hugely popular with the international community of Thoreau followers when it was first published, this book will now be essential reading for the growing community of people who are interested in living in a tiny house, fully experiencing the natural world, or finding self-sufficiency in an increasingly plugged-in society.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Nature

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1990

About the author

Author of six books dealing with the experince of place and natural history. Most recent book is The Paradise of al These Parts: A natural history of Boston (Beacon Press 2008).

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Reviews

[cailey . · Rating 3 out of 5]

i enjoy hearing about people's passion and love, especially when they're tied to or reflective of mine. mitchell does this well but at times his writing is off on a tangent that cannot be followed. interesting read, but sometimes i was questioning the purpose of pages and passages

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

The description on here isn’t wholly accurate. Here’s the blurb from the jacket of my book, which much more accurately conveys what the book is about:

“This is the story of a man who went back to the land, not in Alaska or Vermont but in the suburbs of Boston. On a still undeveloped square mile across a valley from a massive new Digital Equipment building, John Mitchell built a one-room Gothic Revival cabin in the woods and lived without electricity or running water. His closest neighbors were owls, foxes, and deer, but he also discovered that the woods harbored some extraordinary people, most of whom regarded the modern world with the same suspicion he did. Talking to them and reading Thoreau, he grew increasingly obsessed with our sense of time and place— or placelessness. ‘Living at the End of Time” shows that every landscape holds mystery and wonder, that you can get as close to the land in a suburb as in a wilderness.”

Would recommend to New Englanders, anyone who thinks you have to go far from home to find wild places, and fans of William Least Heat Moon— this book reminds me a lot of PrairyErth, which I also really enjoyed.

[Steve Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this during the days following my knee replacement surgery. I was able to make theme to walking without a cane while reading the book and author John Hanson Mitchell's descriptions of long walks in the forest around the small cabin (what we would call a tiny house now) that he lived in for several years partly out of necessity and partly out of an attempt to commune with nature and experience the joys of isolation. In Henry Thoreau style, and located very near Walden Pond, Mitchell relates the blend of his experiences and modern living. I hoped for a bit more thought-provoking content but it was there. In the Epilogue, Mitchell writes: "I discovered firsthand, as Henry Thoreau so often taught, that the essence of civilization is not the multiplication of wants but the elimination of need. In our time it never hurts to rediscover such simple truths for oneself." I long for experiences that lead to such discovery.

[Alycia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another man with a literary hard on for Thoreau. Rambling passages wander between his own present, Thoreau’s day, his father’s life in China (circa 1915-18) and various other hermits, vagrants and “green men” of the New England wilderness. Lost me when he decided to add his Thoreau-laden dreams to the effluents. (And yes, I use “effluents” to remind myself if the author’s unfortunate outdated word choice in many, many instance.)

[Kristy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish I could give half stars as this is more 3 and a half. I enjoyed it, although Mitchell tends to get a little sidetracked imo, however he tells a good story and with New England near and dear to my heart, I love hearing them, convoluted or not.

[Kimberley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a bad book, but I learned a lot more about Thoreau than I did about the author and his house,

[Maurean · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a biography, of sorts, about a year in the life of the author - spent in a cabin he built himself, in the woods near Walden Pond.It was okay; not bad, but not great, either!