Synopses & Reviews
Here Raymo seeksand findsthe laws of nature and the existential problems of man hidden under every leaf and rock, or caught in the murmur of running water
What history is hidden outside your front door?”Los Angeles Times For almost forty years, Chet Raymo walked a one-mile path from his house to the college where he taught, chronicling the universe by observing every detail of his route with a scientists curiosity, a historians respect for the past, and a childs capacity for wonder. With each step, the landscape he traversed became richer, suggesting ever deeper aspects of astronomy, history, biology, and literature, and making the path universal in scope. His insights inspire us to turn our local paths into portals to greater understanding of our interconnectedness with nature and history. Chet Raymo is the author of Climbing Brandon, Walking Zero, An Intimate Look at the Night Sky, Skeptics and True Believers, and many other books. A winner of a Lannan Literary Award, he lives in North Easton, Massachusetts.
For almost forty years, Chet Raymo walked a one-mile path from his house to the college where he taught, chronicling the universe by observing every detail of his route with a scientists curiosity, a historians respect for the past, and a childs capacity for wonder. With each step, the landscape he traversed became richer, suggesting ever deeper aspects of astronomy, history, biology, and literature, and making the path universal in scope. His insights inspire us to turn our local paths into portals to greater understanding of our interconnectedness with nature and history. This edition includes a new foreward written by Dava Sobel. "A rolling, expansive monologue, roaming among enormous scientific questions . . . A gorgeous book, a paean to the interconnectedness of life, alive with contagious enthusiasm."Anthony Doerr, The Boston Globe
"[The Path] is science gracefully applied to the familiar, and its emphasis on the human as an integral part of nature makes it something more than merely informativea work of edification, a wisdom book."The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Here Raymo seeksand findsthe laws of nature and the existential problems of man hidden under every leaf and rock, or caught in the murmur of running water . . . [The] final effect is contagious, even challenging: What history is hidden outside your front door?"Los Angeles Times
"Raymo has written a book of patience and place, of the small pieces that combine to help one understand the larger world . . . He has given us impetus to know our own back yards better."The Seattle Times
"Prompted by what he sees, Raymo discusses engagingly such topics as photosynthesis, geology and evolution. The path so intimately familiar to him runs for barely more than a mile, 'but the territory it traverses is as big as the universe.'"Scientific American
"Bears comparison with the thought-provoking books written by Robert Finch, Roger Swain and even Annie Dillard."The Providence Journal
"You dont read The Path, you stroll through it. Or perhaps more precisely, you tag along as Raymo's walking partner as he meanders from subject to subject, effortlessly combining the local history . . . with myriad facts of nature and science."The San Diego Union-Tribune
"Like his book An Intimate Look at the Night Sky, The Path is an invitation to fall in love with nature and to think rigorously about it as well."Orion
"This book invites readers to explore [Raymos path] with him. Those who accept will not be disappointed."The Dallas Morning News
A little masterpiece combining the individual and the cosmic with a fine and unflinching eye: informative captivating, heartfelt."Kirkus Review (starred review)
"Raymo ruminates on water as erosive force and life source for the birds, plants, and insects seen on his walk, which in turn provokes tangents on entropy, the chemistry of DNA, and the areas geology. How wondering a commute can beif one looks as thoughtfully as Raymo does in this beauty for mature readers."Booklist
Synopsis
“Here Raymo seeks—and finds—the laws of nature and the existential problems of man hidden under every leaf and rock, or caught in the murmur of running water…What history is hidden outside your front door?”—Los Angeles Times For almost forty years, Chet Raymo walked a one-mile path from his house to the college where he taught, chronicling the universe by observing every detail of his route with a scientists curiosity, a historians respect for the past, and a childs capacity for wonder. With each step, the landscape he traversed became richer, suggesting ever deeper aspects of astronomy, history, biology, and literature, and making the path universal in scope. His insights inspire us to turn our local paths into portals to greater understanding of our interconnectedness with nature and history.
Synopsis
For almost forty years, Chet Raymo has walked a one-mile path from his house in North Easton, Massachusetts to the Stonehill College campus where he taught physics and astronomy. The woods and fields, stream and community gardens he passes are as familiar to him as his own backyard. Raymo closely observes everything, combining the curiosity of a scientist, an historian's knowledge and respect for the past, and a child's capacity for wonder. With each step, the landscape he traverses becomes deeper, richer, more multidimensional, opening door after door into astronomy, geology, biology, history, and literature, and making the path universal in scope.
"The flake of granite in the path was once at the core of towering mountains pushed up across New England when continents collided," he writes. "The purple loosestrife beside the stream emigrated from Europe in the 1800s as a garden ornamental, then went wantonly native in a land of wild frontiers...I have attended to all of these stories and tried to hear what the landscape has to say. I have attended, too, to language. How did the wood anemone and Sheep Pasture get their names? What does the "queset" of Queset Brook signify in the language of Native Americans? Scratch a name in a landscape and history bubbles up like a spring."
Borrowing the words of the early 20th-century naturalist Robert Lloyd Praeger, Raymo urges us all to walk "with reverent feet...stopping often, watching closely, listening carefully." Raymo's wisdom and insights inspire us to experience the world fully, to turn our local paths (whether through cities, suburbs, or rural areas) into portals to greater understanding of our interconnectedness with nature, and of our own history.
About the Author
Chet Raymo is the author of Walking Zero, An Intimate Look at the Night Sky, and many other books. A winner of a Lannan Literary Award, he lives in North Easton, Massachusetts.