Fo'c'sle: Henry Beston's "Outermost House"

Naturalist Henry Beston's The Outermost House as a picture book for young children.

Henry Beston spent a year in a house known as "The Fo'c'sle," high on a dune overlooking the thundering surf of the Atlantic on the outer forearm of Cape Cod. He lived there, alone, through the changing seasons, the migration of birds, the howling of the winter storms, the occasional visits of surfmen from nearby Nauset Station, and the turning of the stars in the night sky. During the days, he would wander along the beach, take notes, and think. At dusk he would come home to write by lanternlight. The result was a book, The Outermost House, published in 1928.

Now we have a record of that year for younger readers, brilliantly retold and illustrated by Nan Parson Rossiter. Her artwork glows with the same inner light and simplicity that animated Beston's prose and amplified the natural world. Beston's words are incorporated throughout the book as Nan Parson Rossiter, as both an artist and an interpreter, brings him, his year, and the little shack he so loved come poignantly, to life again.