The Prophet of Dry Hill ― Lessons from a Life in Nature

David Gessner had always known of John Hay. A nature-writing legend, author of fifteen books, Hay was something of a hero to the younger Gessner. But it wasn’t until he returned to his childhood home on Cape Cod that Gessner befriended the older man. At first, Gessner thought he might write a biography of a writer he admired, but Hay became more friend than subject, and Gessner’s book became a dramatic record of what the young man learned from his elder.The Prophet of Dry Hill is the beautifully written and compelling story of their year together. But more than just a book about friendship, it’s a lyrical testament to the importance of living a life connected to the wild. John Hay lived deeply on one piece of land on Cape Cod for sixty years. As a consequence, he has much to tell Gessner, and us, about the importance of cultivating deep connections to the land we live on. His words speak to our forgotten need for space and for reaching beyond ourselves to the world outside. In our increasingly frenetic world, a life like John Hay’s—rooted, connected to the natural world, wild—provides a radical counterpoint to our screen-filled existence.

David Gessner is the author of ten books, including The Return of the Osprey and All the Wild That Remains. Gessner is the editor of Ecotone and teaches at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.