Perley: the True Story of a New Hampshire Hermit is a new book written by Shiela Swett Thompson, granddaughter of Perley Swett, a hermit of Cheshire County. The book is published by the county’s historical society.
Sara Maitland, Scottish writer
Interview article in Scotland on Sunday about Scottish writer Sara Maitland’s semi-autobiographical book A Book of Silence. Maitland, an established novelist and convert to Catholicism, moved to a remote area of Scotland where silence permeates the isolation and her daily life. The interviewer David Ross pursues Maitland’s motives and influences at this stage of her life (she is 58); there are trenchant observations on solitude and death.
URL: http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/spectrum/All-quiet-on-the-western.4669789.jp
Cynthia Bourgeault, hermit teacher
Brief newspaper item from The Gazette (Montreal) about Cynthia Bourgeault, “author, lecturer, workshop leader, Episcopal (Anglican) priest, grandmother … and a hermit.” Bourgeault lives on an island off the coast of Maine. The article notes her home, surroundings, and the role of solitude and silence in her teaching and books.
URL: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=f642ec80-5331-4c59-8ec1-cae387c7b349
Other websites about Cynthia Bourgeault:
Biography and audio: http://www.contemplative.org/cynthia.html
Sample article “Silence is God’s First Language”: http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Faith-Tools/Meditation/2004/11/Silence-Is-Gods-First-Language.aspx
Chinese hermit among graves
This item from the China Daily website, is reprinted in full because such news items often disappear from the web:
Elderly hermit enjoying life in mountain graves
(China Daily) Updated: 2008-10-28 09:02A 75-year-old man has been living in open graves for about 23 years in Xinzhou, Hubei province.
Tao Shaotang left his village after quarreling with a neighbor who he suspected of stealing his money in 1984.
Tao remained homeless until 1986 when he built four rooms in unused coffin pits he found on Dahou Mountain.
With tireless effort, Tao transformed a barren hill into a fruit garden after planting scores of peach and Chinese chestnut trees. He has supplemented this income by raising bees.
Tao said he is now accustomed to living alone in the coffin pits and has refused requests of local villagers to move back with them.
(Chutian Jinbao News)
URL: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-10/28/content_7148260.htm
Scottish hermit retires
Telegraph news item about Tom Leppard, the most-tattooed man in the world (until recently) and a hermit who “lived in a ruined bothy on the Scottish island of Skye for 20 years” without electricity or furniture. Leppard is now 73 and is moving to the mainland: “I was perfectly happy in the bothy but I’m like everyone else – I’m getting too old for that kind of life.” Article byline: “The Leopard Man of Skye, once the world’s most tattooed man, has left behind his remote hermit lifestyle to live in a retirement home. ”
Follow-up article: “The Rewards of the Hermit” at URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/30/healthandwellbeing-ruralaffairs