The Frog Run: Words and Wildness in the Vermont Woods (Paperback)

~ (Author) "On a clear morning at the beginning of July, I drive south on Forest Road 49 in the Green Mountain National Forest..." (more)
Key Phrases: frog run, tree with the lights, environmental literature, Bread Loaf, John Elder, Robert Frost (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

John Elder combines his passion for literature and his affection for the outdoors with his love of family. -- Outrider

Product Description

The North Woods tradition of making maple syrup serves as an illuminating backdrop for John Elder’s reflections on nature, literature, playfulness, and fatherhood, as he builds a sugaring house with his sons.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Milkweed Editions; 1 edition (January 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571312587
• ISBN-13: 978-1571312587
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #605,471 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Celebration in the Vermont Wilds, September 13, 2002

By	Craig L. Howe "The Pointed Pundit" (Darien, CT United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

John Elder, in this Credo Series book, intertwines observations of his three loves of - literature, nature and his family - into a celebration of life itself.

The book's title marks the moment between winter and spring when the tree frogs commence croaking, warning of the last maple tree sap good for distilling into syrup. The Credo Series offers contemporary American writers an opportunity to discuss the fluid and subtle issues of a world in constant change. Elder offers a message of hope; a hope grounded his lineage, literature and the land; how he found balance building a sugarhouse with his sons in the Vermont Woods.

My favorite essay in the collection is "Starting with the Psalms: A Reader's History" where he weaves memories of the 23rd Psalm into a discussion of John Milton's Paradise Lost with a little Annie Dillard, Robert Frost and Gary Snyder thrown in to season the discussion. Grounded in his experience as a professor and writer living in the Green Mountains of Vermont, Elder connects literature with the landscape that inspired it.

Elder is a treasure; a man who seamlessly weaves the dots of his existence into a portrait that honors his observations of his place on earth.