Forest Life: Practical Meditations on Canoeing, Fishing, Hunting, and Bushcraft

by George Washington Sears

For readers of Cabin Porn and Your Cabin in the Woods , this illustrated collection of odes to the outdoors is the perfect escape into nature.
Forest Life collects George Washington Sears' timeless writing about the joys of exploring the wilderness, edited for a modern audience. In text both practical and inspirational, Sears' provides enduring wisdom about trips into the woods and lakes, including equipment, campfires, fishing, camp cooking, traveling light, and canoes.

The original "forest bather," Sears wanted others to enjoy the woods as he did. He published Woodcraft in 1884 to help prepare skillful, self-reliant woodsman and to extol the restorative power of nature. In addition to Woodcraft , Forest Life contains many of his articles from Forest and Stream, as well as his nature poetry.

Sears is especially eloquent about canoeing, which he helped popularize with published tales of his adventures. In 1883, when he was 61 years old and suffering from tuberculosis, he used a 9-foot, 10-1/2 pound canoe to travel 266 miles through the Adirondacks, writing, "The easy, gentle rocking of the canoe was the best incentive to drowsiness I ever found, and by night or day was nearly certain to send me into dreamland."

This edition features period etchings of scenes, people, flora, and fauna of the Adirondacks, and is the ideal gift book for the outdoor enthusiast.

Genres: Nature

288 pages, Hardcover

Published October 23, 2018

About the author

Pseudonym: Nessmuk
1821-1890

Reviews

[Brian Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent view into the late 19th and early 20th century in the backwoods and lakes of Upstate New York canoeing and bushcraft. It will remind many of trips they took from Maine to Minnesota camping or canoeing and yet still be such a distant glimpse into the ways the world of changed and clouded the past woodsman’s visions with development and loss of habitat in the past century. I appreciated his writings on the importance of minimalism and reducing weight in the trail, ironic that being the leading thought while out now in current marketing and adventure writings.

[John Geary · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful book. I love the writing ... and it’s full of wonderful sketches from “Forest and Stream” magazine. The author, George Washington Sears, wrote for that magazine in the second half of the 19th century and this book, comprised of those articles, is full of tales of advice about how to camp and canoe and fish in the wilderness, as well as stories of his travels through the Adirondacks and other wilderness areas by paddle and by foot.
It’s interesting that even back then, he had the same concerns we have today about how the industrialization of our society presents a great risk to the existing wilderness areas, although there is far less wilderness now than there was then.
I guess like that old adage states, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
If you enjoy reading about the outdoors and you find looking back at how somebody else perceived the world 140 years ago, you’ll enjoy this book.

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't read the whole book but enjoyed several random chapters and the line-style illustrations. This would be the perfect gift for someone who loves the outdoors - fishing, canoeing, camping and hunting. It's a real classic! And even though I am not truly any of the above - except a lover of God's beautiful creation - I found this book most interesting. Some great bushman's poetry ("runes") in here, too!

[Jeremy Poppell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing itself is great. However, I was expecting this to be new (to me) material. This book is basically a combination of his well known "Woodcraft", along with his articles from Forest and Stream that are currently being published as "Canoeing The Adirondacks" . If you've never read or owned any of Nessmuk's books this is a great place to start. However, if you're like me and already own the other two named books, I'd skip this one.

[Art the Turtle of Amazing Girth · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many many many things to do and try while camping and hunting.

Great tales of his canoe trips,

This entire book awakens the thing inside that yearns for the woods.

[Leith Wrightman · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's an old man who likes nature and canoeing. It's good. If you like nature and canoeing and old man wisdom.

[terrence ritchey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book makes you rethink how you live