Coming Out of the Woods: The Solitary Life of a Maverick Naturalist

How easy is it to go “back to the land” or just to lead a simple life? The author answers these questions with the narrative of his creation of a 330 acre back-to-the-land community in the forests of North Carolina near the university where he was teaching English. He left academia to create the Saralyn community and to pursue freelance writing and to raise his daughter. The American writer, Henry David Thoreau, who inspired many with his story of 2 years and 2 months near Walden Pond in Massachusetts also inspired many of the people who came to live at Saralyn. Thoreau famously concluded, “In wildness is the preservation of civilization.” Kaufman, like Thoreau, built his own house and tended his own garden and forest. His conclusion after living 10 times as long in the woods is, “In civilization is the preservation of wildness.” As he reaches this conclusion he deals with many of the myths about the nature of Nature and our place in it.