From the back cover:

"Berry's story of the Hubbards is both reassuring and challenging... [They] enlarged Thoreau's experience into a life." Noah Adams, Washington Post

"Quietly but forcefully explores how machines encumber life and how simplicity enhances it." Atlanta Journal Constitution

"An engaging philosophical essay... Explores the difficulties, complexities and richness of Hubbard's life." Lexington Herald-Leader

"A perfect vehicle for Wendell Berry's own celebrated themes of individualism, self-sufficiency, and environmental responsibility as well as a valuable account of a productive and noted Kentucky artist." Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

"Berry's many admirers may take special pleasure in this attractive, well illustrated book written to commemorate a most unusual life that holds fast to strong principles... We delight in the courage it took to maintain a lost way of life in our 20th centruy." Nashville Banner

Illustrated with14 black and white photographs, 20 color plates, and black and white drawings throughout.

Comments: 

This work originated as The Blazer Lectures for 1989 at the University of Kentucky.

See also Sonata at Payne Hollow.