Journeys of Simplicity

What Thoreau took to Walden Pond. What Thomas Merton packed for his final trip to Asia. What Annie Dillard keeps in her writing tent. What Edward Abbey and a friend packed (and forgot to pack) for a float trip down the Colorado River. What an impoverished cook served M. F. K. Fisher for dinner. Gandhi's possessions at the time of his death. These vignettes create a spare poetry, a meditation on unencumbered living. In its own quiet way, Journeys of Simplicity ponders the light by which we travel, the light that guides our way -- our traveling light. Not a "simple living" book, reciting tips for how to pinch pennies or get rid of clutter, but a book to be savored slowly, to remind us what is truly essential. Book jacket.

Philip Harnden was the publisher of The Other Side, a magazine of spirituality and social action, for a dozen years. A Quaker, he has written on subjects as diverse as the land rights of Native Americans and the spiritual life of Fritz Eichenberg. A former correspondent for Religion News Service, Harnden has also been a commentator on North Country Public Radio. He lives in northern New York State, not far from the Canadian border