One Man’s Meat, by E. B. White (Gardiner, ME: Tilbury House Publishers, reprint 1997)
In the late 1930s, E. B. White, his wife, and young son left New York for their saltwater farm in North Brooklin, Maine. During the five years they lived there year-round, E. B. White described rural living in monthly columns for Harper’s called “One Man’s Meat.” In 1942, the columns were collected into book form. The most recent reprint of One Man’s Meat, by Maine’s Tilbury House Publishers, continues to prove the timelessness of White’s observations as he transports readers to the Maine landscape that he loved.
“Several months ago, finding myself in possession of one hundred and seventeen chairs divided about evenly between a city house and a country house, and desiring to simplify my life, I sold half of my worldly goods, evacuated the city house, gave up my employment, and came to live in New England. The difficulty of getting rid of even one half of one’s possessions is considerable, even at removal prices. And after the standard items are disposed of – china, rugs, furniture, books – the surface is merely scratched: you open a closet door and there in the half-dark sit a catcher’s mitt and an old biology notebook.” -- from One Man’s Meat, by E. G. White