The Other End of the Drivewway

The Other End of the Driveway is a collection of excursions into the natural history, flora, fauna, weather and weirdness of the central Maine woods. These essays short and long follow in the tracks of writers like Henry David Thoreau and Annie Dillard to bring Maine's natural quirks and curiosities into fresh and fascinating focus.

"The amateur naturalists of the world, and no doubt some professional naturalists, are basically hopeless romantics. We are constantly getting the sometimes reassuring, sometimes creepy feeling that something big is going on beyond the pulp and chemistry of a fir tree, or a snowflake, or a meadowsweet blossom.
"The signs are practically everywhere. They pop into your mind's eye for a moment, like glints of light on wavetops, as sudden recognitions of likenesses between unlike things. Some are so obvious you barely notice them. Spring is like the beginning of life, a baby. Summer is like the fullness of life, an adult. And winter is like death, the bare trees. Only to turn again to spring, it has been repeatedly observed. �
"The amateur naturalists, especially Thoreau, crystallized for us the idea that the natural world is not just a raw material, but a glimpse of forces larger than us. A fact, Thoreau observed in one of his essays, is meaningless until it blossoms into a truth.
"What truth he was talking about is hard to get in focus. But we could never get free of the idea because it's bouncing off the firs themselves."

"Dana Wilde’s essays of Maine’s natural world are a joy. It’s perfect for a busy person who has 20 minutes to read. You can read an essay, put the book down and not lose your place. It will leave you wanting to squeeze in three more pages before you go to sleep."

"Wilde's writing is lucid, painting vivid word pictures of such things as colorful autumn leaves, dirty spring snowbanks and wacky images of toad sex." ... "[He] doesn't just enjoy the beauty of nature, he thinks about it, he questions, he explores and he is amazed."

"[Dana Wilde] is unwilling to just accept the conventional answers provided in most naturalists' guides. He presses issues from scientific and philosophical points of view; he asks tough questions -- really tough questions. He delves into the universe, be it measuring starlight, time or even creation. While those answers could be lofty and ethereal, Wilde has done his research ... so that he can explain them with surprising ease."