Hermits around the web – Hermitary
news, sites, and pages of interest about hermits and solitude
The Sunday Post (UK) reports on an exhibition and conference on the topic of “300 years of solitude: Why we remain fascinated by world’s most famous castaway three centuries on: From Swiss Family Robinson to Castaway, Gilligan’s Island to Lost, the story of castaways washed up on desert islands has intrigued us for centuries.” The historical shipwrecked sailor Alexander Selkirk was the model for Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.
The Telegraph reports on a Scottish hermit living in a remote forest rescued after he pressed the emergency button on his personal locator beacon. The device, his only piece of technology, signaled a medical emergency. Roger Milliard, in his seventies, “built his simple home, which has a gravel floor, in the mid-1980s near a remote loch … [he] has no running water or electricity in the log cabin, but a stream runs beside it and he bathes by lighting a fire under an outdoor bath.”
The New York Times (as well as every other major media source) recently announced that: “Sister Wendy Beckett, Nun Who Became a BBC Star, Dies at 88.” Sister Wendy became a television celebrity with her art history television productions in the 1990s, an unlikely presenter because she was a Catholic nun. What few knew was that she was also a hermit when not before the camera, living in a windowless trailer on the grounds of a Carmelite convent in England.
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/26/obituaries/sister-wendy-beckett-dead.html
The Guardian article “Storms and solitude: the literature of lighthouses” summarizes the lore of lighthouses and their enigmatic keepers: “The solitary existence of a lighthouse keeper has long captured the imagination,” the article notes, whether as adventure fiction or psychological study. Concentrates on Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginia Wolff, M. L. Stedman, and the nonfiction account of W. J. Lewis. Includes a photo gallery of notable lighthouses titled “Seashaken Houses,the stark loneliness of lighthouses – in pictures.”
URL (photo gallery): https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2018/oct/23/seashaken-houses-the-stark-loneliness-of-lighthouses-in-pictures
This Guardian piece is an essay by a young British woman who consciously pursues solitude within her urban environment. The title is: “The pursuit of loneliness: how I chose a life of solitude.” The byline is: “Hayley Campbell quit her job and moved into an empty flat. Here she explains the tough but peculiar pleasures of seclusion.”
URL: https://www.theguardian.com/global/2017/sep/17/choosing-to-be-on-your-own