Ceremonial Time: Fifteen Thousand Years on One Square Mile (Paperback)

by John Hanson Mitchell (Author) "There is a plum grove just above the house in which I live, a tangled, unproductive group of some twelve trees that were planted sometime..." (more)
Key Phrases: frog monster, town poor farm, arrowhead tubers, Scratch Flat, Beaver Brook, New England (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Ceremonial Time is the moment when past, present and future can be perceived simultaneously. Experienced only rarely, usually during ancient dances or rituals, such an escape from time to time is the gift of John Mitchell's extraordinary writing. In the tradition of Desert Solitaire or Sand County Almanac, Ceremonial Time combines reverence for place, powerful narrative, and fascinating detail into a classic of natural/human history.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (March 4, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201149370
• ISBN-13: 978-0201149371
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #419,021 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magic, August 21, 1999

By	guy richardson (Reno, NV USA) - See all my reviews

OK, here's how good this book is -- I bought it and read it, then lost it. So I bought it *again.* It's a lovely book about the ancestry of a piece of land. The writing compares well with Annie Dillard's. Yep, that good.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Important reading for any New Englander, July 4, 2001

By	John Anderson (Bar Harbor, ME USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have lifted whole lecture topics from this book, and passed on copies to numerous students and friends. The idea is lovely -write an ecology based on an intimate history of one square mile of land-and Mitchell delivers it up in excellent prose that keeps one reading even when the material turns a tad dry. Why only 4 stars? I am not sure if this book will have "legs" beyond the landscape and history that it celebrates. It would be great to have a few more Mitchells do something similar to the westward and southward, so that we could expand our perceptions beyond the deliberate confines that the author has set. For those of us within a day's drive however, this is definitely a book to read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful, October 21, 1999

By A Customer

Like Thoreau, Mitchell has travelled widely by walking within a short distance of home. Many of us are able to walk, few are able to see as acutely or reflect as profoundly on what we have seen. This book is not merely a pleasure to read, it lingers in the mind long after the final page.