Henry Beston

Henry Beston(June 1, 1888 – April 15, 1968) was an American writer and naturalist, best known as the author ofThe Outermost House,written in 1928.

Early life and work

Born Henry Beston Sheahan, he was born and grew up inQuincy, Massachusettswith his parents, Dr. Joseph Sheahan and Marie Louise (Maurice) Beston Sheahan, and brother George, a doctor.Beston attendedAdams Academyin Quincy before earning his B.A. (1909) and M.A. (1911) fromHarvard College.While atHarvard,he lived at the historicParson Capen HouseinTopsfield, Massachusetts.

In 1912, Beston took up teaching at theUniversity of Lyon.In 1914, he returned to Harvard as an English department assistant. Beston joined the French army in 1915 and served as an ambulance driver. His service inle Bois le Pretreand at theBattle of Verdunwas described in his first book,A Volunteer Poilu.In 1918, Beston became a press representative for theU.S. Navy.Highlights from this period include being the only American correspondent to travel with theBritish Grand Fleetand to be aboard an American destroyer during combat engagement and sinking. His second book of journalistic work,Full Speed Ahead,described these experiences.

Following the end ofWorld War I,Beston began writingfairy talesunder the name "Henry Beston". In 1919,The Firelight Fairy Bookwas published, followed byThe Starlight Wonder Bookin 1923. During this time, he worked as an editor ofThe Living Age,an offshoot ofThe Atlantic Monthly.He also met his future wifeElizabeth Coatsworth,a fellow author of children's literature with whom he had two daughters, Margaret and Catherine.[3]:97 They lived atHingham, Massachusetts,and Chimney Farm inNobleboro, Maine.[6], during this time.

The Outermost House

The Outermost House,now considered aCape Codnature literary classic, was written after Beston spent what he called "a year of life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod". Spiritually shaken by his experiences inWorld War I,Beston retreated to the outer beach atEasthamin search of peace and solitude.

"Nature is part of our humanity, and without some awareness of that divine mystery, man ceases to be man," Beston wrote.

Beston, who dedicated himself as a "writer/naturalist", is considered one of the fathers of the modern environmental movement, andThe Outermost Househas been called one of the motivating factors behind the establishment of theCape Cod National Seashore.AuthorRachel Carsonsaid that Beston was the only author who ever influenced her writing.

The 20x16 house, dubbed "the Fo'castle" by Beston, was built by Eastham carpenter Harvey Moore in the late spring of 1925. Beston stayed there, on and off, for about two years, leaving the beach occasionally, but was usually on the beach for the many severe storms that struck the Cape in the winter. His house was located two miles south of the Nauset Coast Guard Station, with the Atlantic Ocean near his front door andNauset Marshbehind him. His only neighbors were the Coast Guardsmen, who patrolled the beach.

The Outermost Housewas published in 1928, and has gone through dozens of printings since then. An audiobook version was released in 2007.

Leaving the Outermost House

Beston married writerElizabeth Coatsworthin 1929, and the couple eventually bought a farmhouse called "Chimney Farm"inNobleboro, Maine.Beston wrote several more books while living inMaine(Northern FarmandHerbs and the Earthamong them), but never again approached the overall acclaim that he achieved inThe Outermost House.

In the 1940s, Beston received honorary doctorates fromBowdoin College,Dartmouth College,andUniversity of Maineand was made honorary member ofPhi Beta Kappaat Harvard. He was also made honorary editor ofNational Audubon Magazine.In 1949, a twentieth-anniversary edition ofThe Outermost Housewas released. Beston also edited an anthology of writings about Maine,White Pine and Blue Water(1950).

Beston lectured regularly at Dartmouth College and wrote for publications likeThe AtlanticandChristian Science Monitorthroughout the 1950s. He also revised his earlier work in children's literature and publishedHenry Beston's Fairy Talesin 1952. He was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences(AAAS) in 1954.In 1959, he was the third recipient of the AAAS' Emerson-Thoreau Medal, previously awarded to onlyRobert FrostandT. S. Eliot.

Beston donated the "Fo'castle" to theMassachusetts Audubon Societyin 1959. One of its tenants was a woman fromSharon, Massachusettsnamed Nan Turner Waldron, who would spend several weeks each year there from 1961 to 1977. Her experiences are chronicled in the bookJourney to Outermost House.

With his health deteriorating, Beston returned to the beach in Eastham one last time on October 11, 1964, when his famous house was dedicated as aNational Literary Landmark.Beston died on April 15, 1968, inNobleboro, Maine,and is buried in a small cemetery at Chimney Farm. Chimney Farm was listed on theNational Register of Historic Placesin 2007.

The house was carried away by extreme high tides during a winter hurricane in February 1978. Waldron wrote that thousands still come to the beach each year, wanting to learn more about this man who retreated to the outer beach "in a search for the great truth, and found it in the spirit of man," as his National Literary Landmark dedication plaque read. "Many know the book, some carry it with them," Waldron wrote. "Still they come, pilgrims of a sort- stirred by his sense of wonder but drawn by his vision of hope."

Bibliography

• A Volunteer Poilu(1916)
• Full Speed Ahead(1919)
• The Firelight Fairy Book(1919)
• The Starlight Wonder Book(1921)
• Book of Gallant Vagabonds(1925)
• The Sons of Kai(1926)
• The Living Age(1921)
• The Outermost House(1928)
• Herbs and The Earth (1935)
• American Memory(1937)
• Five Bears and Miranda(1939)
• The Tree that Ran Away(1941)
• Chimney Farm Bedtime Stories(1941)
• The St. Lawrence(1942)
• Northern Farm:A Chronicle of Maine(1948)
• White Pine and Blue Water:A State of Maine Reader (1950) (editor)
• Henry Beston's Fairy Tales(1952)
• Especially Maine: The Natural World of Henry Beston(1972)

External links

• The Friends of Henry Beston
• Works by Henry BestonatProject Gutenberg
• Works by or about Henry Bestonat theInternet Archive
• Works by Henry BestonatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)
• The Henry Beston Society
• Audiobook: "The Outermost House"ArchivedJune 26, 2018, at theWayback Machine
• Audiobook: "The Firelight Fairy Book"
• Various stories by Henry Beston (full text)
• The Best of Beston: A Selection from the Natural World of Henry Beston,p. 0, atGoogle Books
• Henry BestonatLibrary of Congress,with 35 library catalog records
• The Papers of Henry Bestonat Dartmouth College Library