Maine is a talisman of the American imagination, offering beauty and wildlife to tourists and natives. Over the last few years, Jim has published many essays about the wonders and challenges of Maine’s environment, and One Man’s Maine collects and edits them into sixteen pairs. The first essays of each pair employ the natural icons of Maine—lobster, moose, blueberries, lupine—to reach into matters of human significance. These are familiar essays that combine science and belief, observation and emotion. The second essays are broader and more discursive and take on a fuller range of experiences in this beloved state.Illustrated by the author’s daughter Emma Krosschell

 Awards
One Man’s Maine, winner of the Maine Literary Award for Maine-themed nonfiction and awarded a bronze medal for the category ecology & environmental essays, Foreword Reviews Book of the Year. Congrats to GWP author, Jim Krosschell

Praise

“Krosschell understands that the world moves; times shift; and there’s a balance to be sought between society, with all its screens and buzzes, and nature. He celebrates the slow pleasures to be found scraping moss off the roof and asks the big questions about what kind of world is being left behind to younger generations.” —The Boston Globe

“One Man’s Maine is really everyone’s Maine. Jim’s descriptions of the landscapes I fell in love with when I first moved here decades ago are an expression of my own heart. His words and metaphors are beautiful and make these forests, mountains, and coastal places that much more inspiring. I hope this book spawns a legion of environmental advocatesthat will rise up and protect this beautiful state, which so many residents and visitors treasure.”  —Lisa Pohlmann, Executive Director, Natural Resources Council of Maine

“Jim Krosschell’s essays are an inviting and thought-provoking revelation of how Maine has pulled in and transformed the life of a man from ‘away.’ His essay on Thoreau, for example, thrills the soul. He writes of this intriguing 19th-century man from ‘away’ that he (Thoreau) ‘represents the bravest attempt to make the connection between nature and spirit, a sojourn away from pettiness, the way life should be no matter where you live it.’ Then Krosschell adds, ‘I’ve got a long way to go to find such a place.’ Well, Krosschell is finding it. His essays beautifully and caringly reveal this in depth and love.” —John Rensenbrink, Professor Emeritus Bowdoin College, Co-Founder US Green Party, Maine Green Party

“A string of vignettes like perfect Maine pearls on a twist of sweet grass, Jim Krosschell’s new book brings us a perfect set of closely observed reflections on what it means to live in right relation with the natural world. Honest and drawn with a light touch, Jim gets us to relax and savor the sweetness of Maine’s true nature … and when we open our eyes, we see that he’s given us something real and true to think about.” —Tim Glidden, President of Maine Coast Heritage Trust

“. . . by page three, I’m not just reading, I’m listening to sounds and rhythms, where the energies are. . . .This is down-Maine backyard naturalism. . . . In Krosschell’s world, joy is a form of truth. He is not saying so. It’s transpiring out of the words. . . . But what I really want to convey to you about this book is that, while all the things Jim Krosschell says here can be merely said, however skillfully, the writing in it channels powers and energies beyond the saying. . . . All backyard naturalists, and everybody in the vicinity of Thoreau, will want to read this book.”  —Dana Wilde, “Off the Radar,” Kennebec Journal

About the Author

Jim Krosschell worked in science publishing in the Boston area for 30 years, starting as a 29-year-old production assistant, avoiding the real world until then by grad school, Peace Corps, travel and TESOL teaching. Those years included hundreds of visits to Maine. After retirement, he began writing much more regularly: more than fifty journals and magazines have published his essays, many of which are collected in this volume. He now divides his time between Newton, Massachusetts and Owls Head, Maine. Besides writing and contributing to the welfare of the Maine Turnpike, he is president of the Board of Directors, Coastal Mountains Land Trust, in Camden, Maine. Author’s website.

Specs:
6 x 9; Paperback Original; 214 pages; $19.95
Pub date: May 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-09982604-2-6

Available wherever books are sold.
Author available for readings throughout New England.
Distributed by Midpoint Trade Books/IPG, Ingram’s, Baker & Taylor.