Eben Holden

A boy's future rests on the shoulders of a humble farmhand. What carries them through the years is a bond neither hardship nor distance can undo.

In Irving Bacheller's Eben Holden, a six-year-old orphan leaves Vermont in a pack basket on his guardian's back, bound for the wilderness of northern New York. His protector, known affectionately as Uncle Eb, has little wealth or standing, but an abundance of humor, resourcefulness, and kindness. Among the Brower family in the village of Faraway, the boy finds a home and begins to discover the wider world.

The story follows his growth from north-country childhood into love, ambition, newspaper work in New York City, and the trials of the Civil War. Drawing on the rural world of his own upbringing, Bacheller brings farm labor, maple-sugar seasons, community gatherings, and local storytelling into a richly human narrative. Through its changes of place and fortune, Uncle Eb remains the measure of a good life: loyal, practical, and generous without seeking recognition. The novel's warmth comes from that contrast between a young man's expanding horizons and the ordinary decency that first gave him a place to belong.

What readers find inside:

This novel will appeal to readers of classic American fiction, stories of found family, and rural narratives shaped by humor and affection.

Step into the north country and follow a life changed by one man's steadfast care.