Chasing Eden: A Book of Seekers Paperback -

From the rear cover

In this remarkable book, Howard Mansfield re-mystifies the cold, hard

land of the American northeast. He unearths parades of seekers--

Shakers who love God and TV, divorced men who haunt the hiking huts

of Mount Washington, Pocumtucks who paddle downstream to offer a

mercy that will go unreturned. His prose is at turns arresting with its

poignancy and laugh-out-loud funny. It's good to go on this jaunt with

him. He has a knack for spotting the wild characters that lead us into the

electric realm between memory and hope.

--Lulu Miller, author of Why Fish Don't Exist

and co-host of Radiolab

Many of us are content to lead our lives unconcerned with the big

questions our short time on this earth constantly pose. This book

focuses on those who do search--relentlessly--for meaning.

--Ken Burns, documentary filmmaker

Howard Mansfield journeys into stories in the same way one sets out

to climb a mountain: with care and preparation. He is the most

insightful of historians and journalists, and there are stories here, and

reflections, that will leave you gobsmacked as to how you could have

gone this long without hearing them, and holding them dear. The Eden

that Mansfield is chasing is less a place than a promise--but no matter,

Chasing Eden is necessary reading for anyone with a mind, a heart, and

a conscience.

--J.C. Hallman, author of In Utopia: Six Kinds of Eden

and the Search for a Better Paradise