Joe Dickman, an Ohio-born man in the depression era 1930s, moved to Kice Island, a small undeveloped southwest Florida island, where he lived as a hermit. From the compiler of the story of Ed Seely, one of the Everglades hermits. URL: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=2256&dept_id=457701&newsid=14336309&PAG=461&rfi=9.
Contemporary Chinese hermit
Here is a cryptically brief news item entitled “Man Prefers Simple Life Alone in Wild,” from the Beijing China Daily web site. URL: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-04/06/content_431689.htm. It is short enough to reproduce in full here.
Man prefers simple life alone in wild
A 58-year-old man in Tonglian County of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has enjoyed life as castaway in the mountains for nine years, the Nanguo Morning News reports.
The recluse began his way of life when he discovered that his long absence in the village made the village authorities forget his existence.
Yang Genlin decided to live in the remote mountains, eating wild vegetables and mushrooms at a small paddy in the woods.
Yang said being alone both at home and in the woods is preferable to him. He’d rather continue his life in the mountains befriending birds in the trees and frogs in the bourn.
Tree-planting India hermit
Brief article from Orissa, India, about a real-life equivalent of Elzéard Bouffier, the protagonist of Jean Giono’s The Man Who Planted Trees. Pandaba Charan Das is a hermit who has single-handedly reforested a barren hillside over some thirty years. URL: http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=88868.
Everett Reuss, wanderer
Everett Reuss (1914-1934) disappeared into the sierra of the U.S. West professing a love of nature and solitude. He wrote poetry and made block prints of natural settings. With his burro Reuss departed for the desert wilderness, not yet age 21, and never returned. A number of web sites tell his story. The “official” site for books, etc., seems to be EverettReuss.net (http://www.everettruess.net). More information includes a page from Traditional Fine Art Online (http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/2aa/2aa404.htm), Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (http://www.suwa.org/everett.html), and a descriptive biographical page (http://www.angelfire.com/sk/syukhtun/everett.html). Brought to our attention by a friend of Hermitary.
Daniel Bourguet
A brief article from the Eglise Reformee de France web site on Daniel Bourguet, Protestant hermit, including a photograph of him in front of his hermitage. URL: http://www.erf-clr.org/communautes_et_centres.php?rub=184&nid=218&tag=1180.
Brought to our attention by a friend of Hermitary. See also a translated article about him in Hermitary: http://hermitary.com/articles/bourguet.html.