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=                            Henry_Beston                            =
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                            Introduction
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Henry Beston (June 1, 1888 - April 15, 1968) was an American writer
and naturalist, best known as the author of 'The Outermost House',
written in 1928.


                        Early life and work
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Born Henry Beston Sheahan, he was born and grew up in Quincy,
Massachusetts with his parents, Dr. Joseph Sheahan and Marie Louise
(Maurice) Beston Sheahan, and brother George, a doctor. Beston
attended Adams Academy in Quincy before earning his B.A. (1909) and
M.A. (1911) from Harvard College. While at Harvard, he lived at the
historic Parson Capen House in Topsfield, Massachusetts.

In 1912, Beston took up teaching at the University of Lyon. In 1914,
he returned to Harvard as an English department assistant. Beston
joined the French army in 1915 and served as an ambulance driver. His
service in le Bois le Pretre and at the Battle of Verdun was described
in his first book, 'A Volunteer Poilu'. In 1918, Beston became a press
representative for the U.S. Navy. Highlights from this period include
being the only American correspondent to travel with the British Grand
Fleet and to be aboard an American destroyer during combat engagement
and sinking. His second book of journalistic work, 'Full Speed Ahead',
described these experiences.

Following the end of World War I, Beston began writing fairy tales
under the name "Henry Beston". In 1919, 'The Firelight Fairy Book' was
published, followed by 'The Starlight Wonder Book' in 1923. During
this time, he worked as an editor of 'The Living Age', an offshoot of
'The Atlantic Monthly'. He also met his future wife Elizabeth
Coatsworth, a fellow author of children's literature with whom he had
two daughters, Margaret and Catherine.[3]:97 They lived at Hingham,
Massachusetts, and Chimney Farm in Nobleboro, Maine.[6], during this
time.


                      ''The Outermost House''
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'The Outermost House', now considered a Cape Cod nature literary
classic, was written after Beston spent what he called "a year of life
on the Great Beach of Cape Cod". Spiritually shaken by his experiences
in World War I, Beston retreated to the outer beach at Eastham in
search of peace and solitude.

"Nature is part of our humanity, and without some awareness of that
divine mystery, man ceases to be man," Beston wrote.

Beston, who dedicated himself as a "writer/naturalist", is considered
one of the fathers of the modern environmental movement, and 'The
Outermost House' has been called one of the motivating factors behind
the establishment of the Cape Cod National Seashore. Author Rachel
Carson said that Beston was the only author who ever influenced her
writing.

The 20x16 house, dubbed "the Fo'castle" by Beston, was built by
Eastham carpenter Harvey Moore in the late spring of 1925. Beston
stayed there, on and off, for about two years, leaving the beach
occasionally, but was usually on the beach for the many severe storms
that struck the Cape in the winter. His house was located two miles
south of the Nauset Coast Guard Station, with the Atlantic Ocean near
his front door and Nauset Marsh behind him. His only neighbors were
the Coast Guardsmen, who patrolled the beach.

'The Outermost House' was published in 1928, and has gone through
dozens of printings since then. An audiobook version was released in
2007.


                    Leaving the Outermost House
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Beston married writer Elizabeth Coatsworth in 1929, and the couple
eventually bought a farmhouse called "Chimney Farm" in Nobleboro,
Maine. Beston wrote several more books while living in Maine
('Northern Farm' and 'Herbs and the Earth' among them), but never
again approached the overall acclaim that he achieved in 'The
Outermost House'.

In the 1940s, Beston received honorary doctorates from Bowdoin
College, Dartmouth College, and University of Maine and was made
honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa at Harvard. He was also made
honorary editor of 'National Audubon Magazine'. In 1949, a
twentieth-anniversary edition of 'The Outermost House' was released.
Beston also edited an anthology of writings about Maine, 'White Pine
and Blue Water' (1950).

Beston lectured regularly at Dartmouth College and wrote for
publications like 'The Atlantic' and Christian Science Monitor
throughout the 1950s. He also revised his earlier work in children's
literature and published 'Henry Beston's Fairy Tales' in 1952. He was
elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS)
in 1954. In 1959, he was the third recipient of the AAAS'
Emerson-Thoreau Medal, previously awarded to only Robert Frost and T.
S. Eliot.

Beston donated the "Fo'castle" to the Massachusetts Audubon Society in
1959. One of its tenants was a woman from Sharon, Massachusetts named
Nan Turner Waldron, who would spend several weeks each year there from
1961 to 1977. Her experiences are chronicled in the book 'Journey to
Outermost House'.

With his health deteriorating, Beston returned to the beach in Eastham
one last time on October 11, 1964, when his famous house was dedicated
as a National Literary Landmark. Beston died on April 15, 1968, in
Nobleboro, Maine, and is buried in a small cemetery at Chimney Farm.
Chimney Farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
2007.


                            Bibliography
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*'A Volunteer Poilu' (1916)
*'Full Speed Ahead' (1919)
*'The Firelight Fairy Book' (1919)
*'The Starlight Wonder Book' (1921)
*'Book of Gallant Vagabonds' (1925)
*'The Sons of Kai' (1926)
*'The Living Age' (1921)
*'The Outermost House' (1928)
*'Herbs and The Earth' (1935)
*'American Memory' (1937)
*'Five Bears and Miranda' (1939)
*'The Tree that Ran Away' (1941)
*'Chimney Farm Bedtime Stories' (1941)
*'The St. Lawrence' (1942)
*'Northern Farm: A Chronicle of Maine' (1948)
*'White Pine and Blue Water': A State of Maine Reader (1950) (editor)
*'Henry Beston's Fairy Tales' (1952)
*'Especially Maine: The Natural World of Henry Beston' (1972)


                           External links
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*[http://www.henrybeston.com The Friends of Henry Beston]
*
*
*
*[http://www.henrybeston.org The Henry Beston Society]
*[http://silverhollowaudio.com/store/  Audiobook: "The Outermost
House"]
*
*[http://www.tonightsbedtimestory.com/category/henry-beston/ Various
stories by Henry Beston (full text)]
*
*
*
[https://archives-manuscripts.dartmouth.edu/repositories/2/resources/1994
The Papers of Henry Beston] at Dartmouth College Library


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