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Bezig met laden... Shantyboat: A River Way of Life (1953)door Harlan Hubbard
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. This bucolic book was published in 1953 and covers the period 1944-1951. Hubbard was a painter (artist) and his newly married wife spent a number of years building a "shantyboat" in Ohio. This term is new to me but hearkens to the frontier days when immigrants drifted down the Ohio on rafts with crude living structures and whatever else dangled haphazard, like a drifting country shack - pots of growing sweet potatoes, coops of chickens, dogs and cats, stoves, live fish wells etc. Hubbard's eye for detail and language elevates this to something special, a timeless classic about a lost world. Gone are the days when the river was mostly uninhabited along the shores except for occasionally farmers seeking news from upriver. When one could drink from the river and eat the bottom feeding carp daily. When the natural world produced a "mess" of wild greens for the taking, dogs could be let loose any old place to roam for the day, and one could pull over and set up a large garden for the summer. It seemed a gentler, kinder and richer place, more in common with Mark Twain's 19th century than the 21st. The descriptions of the natural world abound, and it is a land of plenty, Hubbard does not indulge in environmental complains (as I am doing) except occasionally but very obliquely. It's worth noting he did eat carp and catfish daily, and 3 years into the trip he experience a ruptured appendix (where toxins accumulate) perhaps a coincidence. We (now) know how toxin-laden the fish are, but Hubbard lived to a hale age of 88, so there you go. There is a lot to be said for a slow lifestyle and simple living. ( ) geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Shantyboat is the story of a leisurely journey down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. For most people such a journey is the stuff that dreams are made of, but for Harlan and Anna Hubbard it became a cherished reality. In the fall of 1944 they built a houseboat, small but neatly accommodated to their needs, on the bank of the Ohio near Cincinnati, and in it after a pause of two years they set out to drift down the river. In their small craft, the Hubbards became one with the flow of the river and its changing weathers. An artist by profession, Harlan Hubbard records with graceful ease the many facets of their life on the river-the panorama of fields and woods, summer gardening, foraging expeditions for nuts and berries, dangers from storms and treacherous currents, the quiet solitude of the mists of early morning. Their life is sustained by the provender of bank and stream, useful things made and found, and mutual aid and wisdom from people met along the journey. It is a life marked by simplicity and independence, strenuous at times, but joyous, with leisure for painting and music, for observation and contemplation. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)797.12The arts Recreational and performing arts Water & Aerial Sports Boating Boating by types of vesselsLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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