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Recommended Books on Homesteading

This is nothing more than an annotated list of the books that I've found helpful over the years. Some of them are informatively helpful, others are inspirationally helpful, and some are both.

In the first rank are the books of John Seymour, William Cobbett, Gene Logsdon, and Wendell Berry, in approximately that order.

John Seymour was the doyen of the British smallholder movement. Anything by John Seymour, or by John and Sally Seymour, is a must-read. Although there are a few clinkers in the lot, they only serve to put the rest of his works in perspective. John and Sally were "homesteaders" in England at a time when "self-sufficient" living was incomprehensible crankery to the mainstream. Their books are witty and highly entertaining, and packed with solid, practical advice.

William Cobbett was an eighteenth-century Englishman who may have been the first to identify what we now call the military-industrial complex. His name for it was "The Thing." Cobbett is widely regarded as a master of English prose, and that he was. If you like trenchant, muscular writing, Cobbett is your man. Cobbett was a self-made man, and belligerently political. He spent a fair amount of time in jail for publishing his opinions, running his farm by proxy through his children.

Gene Logsdon is an American writer, a native of Ohio. He has written a number of books that deal specifically with the problem, or project, of living as self-sufficiently as possible on a few acres. For some reason, I don't find his advice quite as practical as that of Seymour, but then, as I am not known to be a practical man, you shouldn't take me at my word. At any rate, he has certainly filled my head with bucolic visions lo these many years.

Of these four writers, Wendell Berry perhaps enjoys the broadest reputation outside the pale of "homesteading." He has written widely on a number of subjects, and he is a masterful writer. His philosophical dissections of modern values are both weighty and cutting. He, also, is an American, a native of Kentucky, and teaches there (or did) at one of the universities. I value him primarily for his philosophical perspectives, although once in a while a bit of practical advice slips through. We almost named a horse after him, but decided on "Comet" instead. Sorry, Wendell.

Books by John & Sally Seymour:

Books by John Seymour:

Books by William Cobbett:

Books by Gene Logsdon:

Books by Wendell Berry:

Well, anything by Wendell Berry, really—and I suppose the same goes for the authors above—but try these:

After the "big four"

There are many others. Some of these are old favorites, some are useful manuals. I am a scattershot reader, and most of my finds have been due to serendipity rather than system or effort. I have found the following books helpful to the degree indicated.