Wilderness Ways

Illustrated. Ambleside Online Book. Naturalist William J. Long (1857-1952) was also the minister of the First Congregationalist Church in Stamford, CT. He would travel from Stamford in March, often with his two daughters Lois and Cesca, to "the wilderness" of Maine. They would stay there until the first snows of October, and sometimes all winter. He wrote of these wilderness experiences in books Ways of Wood Folk, Wilderness Ways, Wood-folk Comedies, Northern Trails, Wood Folk at School, along with many others. His earlier books were illustrated by Charles Copeland; two later ones were illustrated by Charles Livingston Bull. He believed that the best way to experience the wild was to plant yourself and sit for hours on end to let the wild "come to you; and they will!".