author
Henry Beston
1888–1968
Best known for The Outermost House, he wrote about the natural world with unusual patience, wonder, and clarity. His work helped shape modern nature writing by treating animals and landscapes as lives and presences of their own.
8 Audiobooks
The Book of Gallant Vagabonds
by Henry Beston
A Volunteer Poilu
by Henry Beston
The Starlight Wonder Book
by Henry Beston
The Firelight Fairy Book
by Henry Beston
The sons of Kai : The story the Indian told
by Henry Beston
About the author
Born Henry Beston Sheahan in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1888, he was an American writer and naturalist educated at Harvard. He taught for a time, served in wartime volunteer and naval work during World War I, and later turned those experiences—and his deep attention to place—into books.
His most famous work, The Outermost House (1928), grew out of a year spent in a small dune-top shelter on Cape Cod's Great Beach. The book became a classic of American nature writing, admired for its calm, vivid observations of sea, weather, birds, and the changing seasons.
Beston later married writer Elizabeth Coatsworth, and the two made their home at Chimney Farm in Nobleboro, Maine. He continued to write there, including books such as Northern Farm, and remained closely associated with New England landscapes until his death in 1968.