Hermitary
 
 

Reviews - Books & Articles

Hermits | Hermit dwellings | Solitude | Silence | Simplicity


Hermits

  • GENERAL
  • Hermits: the Insights of Solitude (book) by Peter France.
  • A Pelican in the Wilderness: Hermits and Solitaries (book) by Isabel Colegate.
  • Philosophy of Renunciation East and West (article) by Erling Skorpen.
  • Ataraxia: Happiness as Tranquility (article) by Gisela Striker.

  • WEST

    • ANCIENT & MEDIEVAL
  • The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity (article) by Peter Brown.
  • Symbols of Marginality from Early Pythagoreans to Late Antique Monks (article) by J. N. Bremmer.
  • Hermits, Saints, and Snakes: the Archaeology of the Early Ethiopian Monastery in Wider Context (article) by Niall Finneran.
  • Historical Fact and Exegetical Fiction in the Carolingian Vita S. Sualonis (article) by Lynda Coon.
  • The Awesome Hermit: The Symbolic Significance of the Hermit as a Possible Research Perspective (article) by John Howe.
  • Eremitical Anthropology of William of St. Thierry (article) by John Conley.
  • The Hermits and Anchorites of England (book) by Rotha Mary Clay, and The English Mediaeval Recluse (book) by Francis D. S. Darwin.
  • Lives of the Anchoresses: The Rise of Urban Recluses in Medieval Europe (book) by Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker.
  • Upper Class Asceticism: Social Origins of Ascetic Movements and Medieval Saints (article) by Rodney Stark.
  • Hermits and Recluses in English Society, 950-1200 (book) by Tom Licence.
  • Anchorites and Their Patrons in Medieval England (book) by Ann K. Warren.
  • The Hermit in English Literature from the Beginnings to 1660 (book) by Charles P. Weaver.
  • Solitude and the Neoclassicists (article) by Raymond D. Havens.
  • The Hermit and the Saint [folk tale genre] (article) by Gordon Hall Gerould.
  • The Hermit in Spanish Drama before Lope de Vega (article) by Gabriel H. Lovett.
  • The Forgotten Desert Mothers: Sayings, Lives, and Stories of Early Christian Women (book) by Laura Swan.
  • Harlots of the Desert: A Study of Repentance in Early Monastic Sources (book) by Benedicta Ward.
  • The Perfection of Solitude: Hermits and Monks in the Crusader States (book) by Andrew Jotischky.
  • A Hermit's Cookbook: Monks, Food and Fasting in the Middle Ages (book) by Andrew Jotischky.

  • MODERN
  • The American Hermit and the British Castaway (article) by Coby Dowdell.
  • Thoreau and Zimmermann (article) by Grant Loomis
  • The Soliloquy of a Hermit (book) by Theodore Francis Powys
  • The Language of Silence: the Changing Face of Monastic Solitude (book) by Peter-Damian Belisle.
  • An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order (book) by Nancy Klein Maguire.
  • The Maronite Eremitical Tradition: A Contemporary Revival (article) by G. Hourani.
  • Lost in the Taiga (book) by Vassily Peskov.
  • Maria of Olonets (book) by Bishop Nikodim of Belgorod
  • Flannery O'Connor, Hermit Novelist (book) by Richard Giannone.
  • A Hermit Disclosed (book) by Raleigh Trevelyan.
  • The Hermit of Meredith Hill (book) by Agnes N. Pickering.


  • EAST

  • CHINA
  • Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China (book) selected and translated by David Hinton.
  • Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits (book) by Bill Porter.
  • Where the World Does Not Follow: Buddhist China in Picture and Poem (book) translations of T'ang poems by Chinese hermits by Mike O'Connor; photos by Steven R. Johnson.
  • The Changing Concept of the Recluse in Chinese Literature (article) by Li Chi.
  • The Nung-chia School of the Tillers and the Origins of Peasant Utopianism in China (article) by A. C. Graham

  • JAPAN
  • Four Huts: Asian Writings on the Simple Life (book) translations of Po-Chu'i, Yoshishige no Yasutane, Kamo no Chomei, and Basho by Burton Watson, illustrated by Stephen Addiss.
  • Reclusion and Poetry: Reconsidering Kamo no Chomei's Hojoki and Hosshinshu (article) by Tamamura Kyo
  • The Holy Man's Hut as a Symbol of Stability in Japanese Buddhist Pilgrimage (article) by Mark MacWilliams
  • The Aesthetics of Discontent: Politics and Reclusion in Medieval Japanese Literature (book) by Michele Marra
  • The Politics of Reclusion: Painting and Power in Momoyama Japan (book) by Kendall H. Brown
  • Basho, the Man and the Plant (article) by Donald H. Shively

  • INDIA & TIBET
  • The Hermits of Rishikesh (book) by Augusthy Keemattam.
  • Sadhus: India's Mystic Holy Men (book) by Dorf Hartsuiker. Photographic essay.
  • The Yogins of Ladakh: A Pilgrimage Among the Hermits of the Buddhist Himalayas (book) by John Crook and James Low.
  • Cave in the Snow: Tenzin Palmo's Quest for Enlightenment (book) by Vicki Mackenzie.

    • Hermit dwellings
  • The Hermit's Hut: Architecture and Asceticism in India (book) by Kazi K. Ashraf
    On Adam's House in Paradise: The Idea of the Primitive Hut in Architectural History (book) by Joseph Rykwer
    The Geography of the Monastic Cell in Early Egyptian Monastic Literature (article) by Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom
    A Hut of One's Own: Life Outside the Circle of Architecture (book) by Ann Cline
    The Hermit in the Garden (book), by Gordon Campbell
    Heidegger's Hut (book) by Adam Sharr.
  • The Wabi-sabi House: The Japanese Art of Imperfect Beauty (book) by Robyn Griggs Lawrence
  • A Place of One's Own: the Education of an Amateur Builder (book) by Michael Pollan
    The Poetics of Space (book) by Gaston Bachelard
    The Natural House (book) by Frank Lloyd Wright

    • Solitude

    Solitude - topical reviews

  • Psychology
    Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection, by John T. Cacioppo & William Patrick
    The Call of Solitude: Alonetime in a World of Attachment, by Esther Schaler Buchholz
    Migrations to Solitude, by Sue Halpern

  • Women & Solitude
    The Center of the Web: Woman and Solitude, edited by Delese Wear
    In Praise of Retreat, by Kirsteen MacLeod
    A Book of Silence, by Sara Maitland
    Journal of a Solitude, by May Sarton
    Fifty Days of Solitude, by Doris Grumbach
    Listening Below the Noise, by Anne D. LeClaire
    The Solitary Summer, by Elizabeth von Arnim
    Drinking the Rain, by Alix Kates Shulman
    Epicurean Simplicity, by Stephanie Mills
    Woodswoman, by Anne LaBastille
    And I Shall Have Some Peace There, by Margaret Roach
    The Stations of Still Creek, by Barbara J. Scot
    Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard
    Where God Begins to Be, by Karen Karper
    Wind in the Sand: the Hidden Life of an Anchoress, by Pinions
    The Wisdom of Solitude: a Zen Retreat in the Woods, by Jane Dobisz
    Forty Days: Diary of a Traditional Solitary Sufi Retreat, by Michaela Ozelsel
    Alone in the Temple: Solitude and Women poets (article) by Leslie Miller

  • Men & Solitude
    Deep Country: Five Years in the Welsh Hills, by Neil Ansell
    Desolation Angels, by Jack Kerouac
    Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness, by Edward Abbey
    Solitude: Seeking Wisdom in Extremes - A Year Alone in the Patagonia Wilderness, by Robert Kull
    A Hermit in the Himalayas, by Paul Brunton
    Alone, by Richard E. Byrd
    Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer
    The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit, by Michael Finkel
    The Point of Vanishing and The Stars in Our Pockets, by Norman Axelrod.
    Running to the Mountain: a Journey of Faith and Change, by Jon Katz
    Stillness: Daily Gifts of Solitude, by Richard Mahler

  • Solitude in Literary Fiction and Poetry
    The Hermit (L'Solitaire), by Eugene Ionesco
    Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse
    Wandering, by Hermann Hesse
    Notes From the Underground, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    The Stranger, by Albert Camus
    Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
    Solitude in the fiction of Joseph Conrad
    Solitude in the fiction of Herman Melville
    Solitude and Transcendence in John Cowper Powys by Janina Nordius
    • Savage Solitude, by Máighréad Medbh
    The Razor's Edge, by W. Somerset Maugham

    Silence

    Simplicity

  • Simplicity in theory
    Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich, by Duane Elgin.
    Graceful Simplicity: Toward a Philosophy and Politics of Simple Living, by Jerome M. Segal.
    Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the Means of Consumption, by George Ritzer
    Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, by E. F. Schumacher

  • Versions of simplicity
    The Good Life: Living the Good Life and Continuing the Good Life, by Scott and Helen Nearing
    Your Money or Your Life, by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
    The Holy Way: Practices for a Simple Life, by Paula Huston
    A Quaker Book of Wisdom: Lessons in Simplicity, Service & Common Sense, by Robert Lawrence Smith

  • Moneylessness: Radical Simplicity today
    Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Works in Her Own Words:
    The Moneyless Man: A Year of Freeconomic Living, by Mark Boyle
    The Man Who Quit Money, by Mark Sundeen [about Daniel Suelo]