Over the past couple of years, I've haunted New England used bookstores (in all five states, actually) in casual search, along with browsing, of Henry Beston's classic The Outermost House. It is, I find, a surprisingly scarce little book, given its high status as a classic of nature writing. Last week, I found this book, published by Brattleboro, Vermont's Stephen Greene Press in 1976, for sale at a used bookstore in downtown Rockland, Maine. It's a reader, with selection from a number of Mr. Beston's books (including those he wrote about his time in Damariscotta, Maine, just down the road from Rockland). I don't generally like readers; this one, however, earns five stars on the ethic it espouses in such gorgeous prose. Very highly recommended. It is time Henry Beston's voice is heard again in our mad and maddening world.