{"product_id":"island-sojourn-elizabeth-arthur-9781965321966","title":"Island Sojourn: A Memoir","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA CLASSIC OF WILDERNESS LITERATURE -- AND A LUMINOUS PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN LEARNING TO LIVE DELIBERATELY\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \"\u003cem\u003eIsland Sojourn\u003c\/em\u003e combines the attention to language of poetry, the speculation of philosophy, and the page-turning story. It is the best such book I have read since Thoreau's\u003cem\u003e Walden\u003c\/em\u003e.\" \u003cem\u003eLinda Pastan\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Magnificent...heart-stopping...vigorous scouring reportage\" \u003cem\u003eKirkus\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Elizabeth Arthur set off for northern Canada at the age of twenty, she had no idea she and her then-husband would end up buying a rocky three-acre island in a huge wilderness lake. Nor did she imagine she would one day write a memoir about the experience. Although she was the daughter of two writers, a ferocious reader, and gripped by Greek philosophy, after her father died when she was fifteen, her imagined future had vanished like smoke.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e But three years later she went on a mountaineering course in Wyoming, dropped out of college, and married the man who had taught her the skills of the wilderness. Together, they moved to Canada, and with a modest inheritance from Elizabeth's father, were able to buy a wilderness island and build a simple house on it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Though they were forty miles by water from the nearest town, and more than fourteen miles from the Carrier Indian village where their nearest neighbors lived, at first the island offered everything they had dreamed of - solitude, self-reliance, harmony with nature. They explored abandoned cabins, crossed paths with lynx and moose, and learned to navigate the lake's shifting moods. But as winter storms cut them off from the mainland, their dream of solitude became a test of endurance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Time Magazine wrote \"Island Sojourn is a graceful meditation on survival, both in a harsh, external landscape, and in the scarier terrain of the self.\" Leon Edel wrote, \"....a fascinating mix of Thoreau and Robinson Crusoe - a fresh, bracing story of young people trying to live with the wilderness and in it.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Like Walden, Alaskan Travels, and Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, but all its own, Island Sojourn stands as a lyrical, unflinching exploration of what it means to live deliberately. From its precise and gorgeous evocations of the natural world, to its clear-eyed portraits of the people she met in the wilds, from its vision of harmony and peace to the dark incursion of sudden death and unexpected violence, this is the story of a young woman who moves from innocence to knowledge - and in so doing, discovers the shared quest at the heart of every human life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e With a Foreword by Elizabeth Arthur's husband, Steven Bauer.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Elizabeth Arthur\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1965321968\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781965321966\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Hollow Tree Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/10\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 276\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.86lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.62d","brand":"Elizabeth Arthur","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48443229012223,"sku":"9781965321966","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_f342a92e-bd0f-4209-9d38-0eebdbcb0bc5.jpg?v=1777202705","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/island-sojourn-elizabeth-arthur-9781965321966","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}