EDITORIAL 207 



tell us until last week, a kind fate brought to the Editorial book- 

 shelf Our Friend,'' John Burroughs, by Dr. Clara Barms, a delight- 

 ful volume, e\^ery page of which leads to a more personal and inti- 

 mate acquaintance with this man of sturdy and enriching personal- 

 ity. Vivid and graphic word pictures are given of his environment 

 and activities, a fine setting for the heart of the book which consists 

 of the chapters of autobiography written as informal letters to the 

 author. 



"Slabsides" has been a part of the public consciousness for years 

 and it is interesting to read of the reasons for its establishment. 

 The teeming social current that sweeps through every home in this 

 day and generation, making life complex and burdensome also 

 flooded "Riverby" the home which Mr. Burroughs built in 1874, 

 and he sought retirement in a place where he could "read a little, 

 write a little, and dream a good deal." First he built a "study" 

 on a hillside near Riverby, but this was too near the current to be 

 even a restful eddy ; so he sought for a site for a hermitage near a 

 mountain stream which Whitman had described as "a stream of 

 hurrying amber, thirty feet wide, risen far back in the hills and 

 woods, now rushing with volume — every hundred rods a fall." 

 Here indeed was the ideal place, and Siabsides was built. But it 

 was not long before Slabsides had set up a social current of its own ; 

 pilgrims, students, artists, authors and nature lovers from afar and 

 near climbed the hill and invaded the hermitage that wouldn't 

 somehow hermit its founder. The reason is not far to seek, for 

 John Burroughs is essentially a social being, even though he esteems 

 himself a poor mixer. His readers have always felt themselves an 

 essential part of the triangle, the other two sides being Burroughs 

 and Nature. They feel that he is writing to them. Here is where 

 he departs widely from Thoreau who never wrote his nature notes 

 to be read of men ; he wrote his philosophy of life for men but he 

 wrote of nature merely as self expression. 



Perhaps because of the uphill current that beat against the bark- 

 covered walls of Slabsides, Mr. Burroughs sought another retreat 

 at the home of his youth where every view was in the truest sense 

 learned by heart. Thus " Woodchuck Lodge" has come to be his 

 home for part of the year, distracting the social current that surges 

 ever toward him. 



*Published by Houghton Mifflin Co., 287 pp. Price $2.00 plus postage. 



