One Man's Maine

Essays on a Love Affair

Winner, John N. Cole Award for Maine-Themed Nonfiction from MWPA

Bronze Medal in Foreword Reviews' INDIES awards

Published by Green Writers Press

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Maine is a talisman of the American imagination, offering beauty and wildlife to tourists and natives. Over the last few years I have 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 marvelous state.

Illustrations by Emma Krosschell

Praise

“One Man’s Maine: Essays on a Love Affair, a collection of essays by Jim Krosschell, nods to E.B. White in subject matter, title, and tone. 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.

Like Loren Eiseley, he is an open-hearted scientist, one wedded to facts and yet not afraid to use the word “miracle” or “mystery.” The 16 essays appear in pairs — the first in each couple looks at Maine’s natural icons, berries, lupine, loon, lobster, and the second grapples with wider concerns. It is a view that will help even those who feel they know the state to see it anew.”

Nina MacLaughlin, The Boston Globe


....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. It’s practically impossible to explain what I mean by this. But I found a sentence right in the book that comes close.

In talking about the curious way in which burning wood releases carbon, he says: “I don’t understand how atoms can be all this — pure energy in themselves, nothing really but imagination and belief, a god if you will.”

Beautiful, I think. And then, somehow inspired by the energy in the combustion, I replace “atoms” with “words,” re-read the sentence, and am suddenly inhabiting the elsewhere of the words.

All backyard naturalists, and everybody in the vicinity of Thoreau, will want to read this book.

Dana Wilde, Kennebec Journal

“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


"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 advocates that will rise up and protect this beautiful state, which so many residents and visitors treasure."

Lisa Pohlman, Executive Director, Natural Resources Council of Maine


"This is a book of essays full of observation and introspection, in the vein of E.B. White, whom Krosschell admires (and alludes to in the title). Each piece is powerfully contemplative. In “Walking on Ash Point” Krosschell “disremembers” two old folks that lived in now-dilapidated trailers, rooms filled with old fishing tackle and knick knacks. He considers his own aging parents and their inevitable last summer at their northern Maine camp: “I don’t know how they will do without the lake and the loons, the early morning mist.” There’s humor, too, but what I liked best about the book is how it documents Maine: its natural beauty, literary history, irresistible allure. Even when Krosschell contemplates his accomplishments (“I could be satisfied, I should be happy in a comfortable chair and a nice view. But all the while I was living for another world…”) isn’t he really describing us all? In One Man’s Maine, Krosschell has crafted far more than that."

Explore Maine 2017, National Resources Council of Maine


"Jim Krosschell’s book, One Man’s Maine, is both thoughtful and provocative. Published by Green Writers Press, a Vermont based publisher whose mission is to spread a message of hope and renewal, the book is all of that. Jim’s “from away” with a home in Owls Head, and he’s a very strong environmentalist. I most enjoyed his chapters on Maine’s wild critters, from moose and deer to yellow finches and crabs. Jim has a unique way of expressing his appreciation for our state, from moss and lichen on a mountaintop to rockweed in the ocean, and he has strong feelings for our wild places.

Here’s a good example from his chapter titled “Human Natures.”

“Land (and sea) is not just a vast therapist’s couch. We crave wild land. Wildness is a mother, the original gene pool. We attempt to co-opt wild experiences – RVs, zip lines, parasailing, glam-camping – at our peril; Mother Nature sees right through these propitiations. Only in preserving and feeling wilderness are we stating that we understand the worst of human nature, and embrace it.” And later, at the end of that chapter, is this: “How desperately important it is, then, to bring together people and nature, to take a kid to a vernal pool deep in the woods where she learns what a frog is and must be, let alone how it feels to hold one in her hand, in her wild, untamed, and mortal heart.”

Boy, he got that right."

George Smith, GeorgeSmithMaine.com