Wednesday, September 14, 2011

John Seymour Classics Back In Print

My family imparted to me, and later my wife, a great number of practical agrarian skills. However, growing up in an age where the myths of unending progress prevailed, I had to get much of my agrarian philosophy elsewhere. It all started with an Eric Sloane book I found in a used bookstore when I was 16. When I was 18, I found a copy of John Seymour's memoir "Fat of the Land" in the local library. I was hooked. Over the years I have collected many of his 41 books, which was fairly difficult before the Internet. If you are interested in any aspect of self sufficiency, you really need to read John Seymour. He is the father of the modern self sufficiency movement, and his works range from purely practical to some hard hitting social criticism. However, unlike many social critics, his books impart genuine affection for people. He understood that economies, farms, communities, are for PEOPLE, and we should not be mere cogs in service of the great god economy. Along with Gene Logsdon and Eric Sloane, John Seymour's ideas made me (for better or worse) the person I am today. If you are a fan, you may not know that his family has continued homesteading in Wales, and are bringing back some of his earlier works. I just received the news that his memoir of moving to Wales from England (I'm A Stranger Here Myself) has been brought back into print, and promptly ordered a copy. You can visit the family site at carninglipress. They also started a John Seymour quote Twitter Feed

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very well said. I also apreciate brief and to the point posts.