When asked what one of my favorite books is, The Poet of Tolstoy Park by Sonny Brewer is always at the top of my list. Surprisingly, it’s not a book of poetry. Brewer’s novel is based on the true story of Henry Stuart, a man who in 1925 was told he had only a few months to live. He’d been diagnosed with what we know as tuberculosis, and it was suggested a different climate would make his remaining months more comfortable. Henry made that change … sort of.

From the book’s jacket cover: “The more you transform your life from the material to the spiritual domain, the less you become afraid of death.” Leo Tolstoy spoke these words, and they became Henry Stuart’s raison d’etre. … Henry responds to the news of his impending death by slogging home barefoot in the rain. It’s 1925. The place: Canyon County, Idaho. Henry is sixty-seven, a retired professor and a widower who has been told a warmer climate will make the end more tolerable. San Diego would be a good choice.

Instead, Henry chooses Fairhope, Alabama … Henry can begin to ‘perfect the soul awarded him’ and rest in the faith that he, and all people, will succeed, ‘even if it takes eons.’ Human existence, Henry believes, continues in a perfect circle unmarred by flaws of personality, irrespective of blood and possessions and rank, and separate from organized religion. In Alabama, until his dying breath, he will chase these high ideas.

Henry buys ten acres of land, sight unseen, leaves behind his best friend and two sons, and sets out to live the remainder of his days in quiet solitude, inspired by the words of his beloved Tolstoy. Friends and family obviously think he’s crazy. As do his new neighbors in Fairhope as Henry settles into an abandoned barn while he builds his home. The home is a round house constructed of concrete blocks that Henry makes by hand. He digs the floor several feet below the surface of the ground to maintain a certain temperature, and sleeps in a bed that he’s woven and suspends from the ceiling. He needs a ladder to climb into it. The eccentric man becomes a barefoot philosopher, poet, and weaver, is compared to Thoreau and referred to as the Hermit of Tolstoy Park.

Yet he opened his door to anyone–from adults to schoolchildren and became beloved himself. He kept a ledger of visitors and the number is well over 1,000. Miraculously he lived another twenty-six years. Brewer ends his jacket blurb, He had gone looking for a place to learn lessons in dying and, studiously, advanced to claim a vigorous new life.

I was intrigued by Henry’s desire to live a simple life and his determination in pursuing it. In the book you meet Henry’s family, and the people of Fairhope, as he learns there’s more to life than solitude.

Henry’s ten acres have been developed, but his house still exists and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. I couldn’t find a link I liked, but you can see photos by searching for Stuart House or Hermit of Tolstoy Park.

This morning I reread the author’s bio and read Sonny Brewer had edited a short story collection, Blue Moon Café. I thought the title sounded familiar. Sure enough, when I looked in my closet library, there it was! (So glad to have my books in a semi-organized manner!) I remember buying it in a used bookstore out in Washington state. So, a book review for another day.

What are you reading these days?