The author spent ten years working in the woods of the Pacific Northwest as a tree planter. The book follows this career, from the first shock of seeing a clear cut, to the last deterioration into injury and disillusionment. The author worked with two different crews during this time, crews with different approaches to the work but who shared a commitment to anarchist principles of self-organization. The memoir delves into the odd characters drawn to the work, the absurd situations that re...

"Wasted Youth is James Wright's vivid and emphatically unromantic memoir of his late teens and early twenties, when his life derived its meager meaning from consuming drugs and alcohol, dodging authority, and simply staying alive day to day. Relentlessly self-critical, Wright is not looking for pity or even sympathy from his reader. But the reader can't help but extend it anyway, knowing from the evidence of this beautifully written book the great potential that was once in danger...

Wander off the beaten path in this collection of essays that follow the excursions of two pedestrians in Europe. Rather than racking up miles in the obvious museums, husband and wife meander through the streets of Paris in search of the perfect thrift store, intense dark chocolat, and radical poster art. In Ireland, after tramping over limestone karst and occupying neolithic forts, they seek, and find, an ancient well of bardic inspiration. The island of Angelsey and its circular ...

Unable to escape the long shadow of childhood trauma, Owen Black takes his sorrow into the woods, never to return. However, the trees know him and they have a different idea. They, too, have experienced abuse and they will not bear passive witness to his suffering. Instead, Owen is transported entirely out of his world and deposited in a deep, mysterious forest. Within this complex biological system dwells a vast arboreal mind, a mind linked to other forests across parallel worlds. The for...