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J. D. Salinger will be 90-years-old on January 1, 2009. The Catcher in the Rye was first published in 1951. Salinger’s reclusiveness has become as legendary as his literary contributions. He seriously defends his privacy – with a high fence, occasionally with a shotgun, and persistently through legal means. A curmudgeonly, misanthrope if I ever [...]
No Most Memorable Hermits list would be complete without Dick Proenneke (1916-2003) whose hermit life can frequently be viewed during PBS pledge-drives. “Alone in the Wilderness” tells Proenneke’s story of life alone in Alaska, relying on simple hand tools and his own physical labor to build his cabin and sustain himself with little outside assistance – no small feat [...]
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Thought it was about time to include a woman on the Most Memorable Hermits list and discovered (with the exception of a few within religious orders), it’s hard to find historical records of the female of the species. I could launch into a long, feminist diatribe here, but I won’t – just the basics: Until the last [...]
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Han-Shan was a curmudgeonly Zen mystic/philosopher born in the early 700′s, and is one of China’s most revered poets. His name translates to “Cold Mountain.” Han-Shan lived in a cave at the base of Hanyen, (Cold Cliff), in Chekiang Province and wrote his poetry on stone slabs and tree trunks. Three hundred of the poems survived and are [...]
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He lived with his goats in a primitive cabin off Horn Creek, deep in the forest near the Harts Lake Loop Road, Pierce County, Washington. He would occasionally hitchhike into McKenna for groceries – his source of income was unknown, possibly a meager pension. Bearded, with a worn felt hat and old sweater, I never [...]
No list of memorable hermits would be complete without one or two “mountain men.” Most Memorable Hermits No. 3 and 4 will be Jeremiah Johnson (played by Robert Redford) and Johnson’s mentor/aggravant “Bear Claw” Chris Lapp (played by the late Will Geer). The 1972 film Jeremiah Johnson was directed by the late Sydney Pollack. Filmed in [...]
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Another of Hiaassen’s recurring fictional hermits is Mick Stranahan, a retired (as in “asked-to-leave”) investigator for the Florida Attorney General. A serial husband (six ex-wives) and loner, he lives in a stilt house on Florida’s Biscayne Bay and when that is destroyed by a hurricane, he becomes caretaker of a nearby, isolated island. Stranahan’s investigative skills come in [...]
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I’ve only been reading “mystery” novels for about five years. One advantage of waiting so long to “discover” the genre, is now when find an author I like, I can go back and read all of his or her works. This is especially fun when the author writes series with recurring characters (common among mystery [...]
When I think of famous hermits, I usually think of Henry David Thoreau not Ted Kaczynski, but when my blogging coach (nag), Steve Mays, came up with Kaczynski as the prime “hermit” example, it didn’t surprise me; I’ve seen the reference before. Is Kaczynski the “most famous” hermit because he’s more contemporary or is it [...]
