Description: Condition info: Thomas Crowell Co., N.Y., 1952. No dust jacket. A copy that has been read, but remains in reasonably good condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact with slight scuffs on edge and spine. The spine and cover and edges may show signs of wear from handling or reading and there may be slight discoloration due to age - there is some foxing on end papers. Packaged with care and shipped with delivery confirmation. if you are not satisfied with the condition of the book, please return the item for a refund.Martha Reben (born Rebentisch, 1906-1964) was an author who wrote The Healing Woods (1952), The Way of the Wilderness (1954), and A Sharing of Joy (1963) memoirs of her experiences camping on the shore of Weller Pond eight miles from Saranac Lake in 1931 in an attempt to cure herself of tuberculosis.Reben grew up in New York City; when she was six her mother died of tuberculosis. When she, too, became ill she was sent to cure in Pennsylvania, the Catskills and finally, in 1927, to Saranac Lake where the Trudeau Sanatorium had had considerable success treating the disease. However, after curing for three and a half years, and after three operations failed to cure her, she decided to follow her own desires, and hired a guide to take her camping in the wilderness.Martha spotted an ad for a different type of cure in the local newspaper. Local boat builder and guide Fred Rice placed an advertisement seeking a patient to help guide into the woods for the fresh air cure. Mr. Rice was a firm believer in the curative powers of the Adirondack woods air. He argued that TB patients who were spending their days in the village of Saranac Lake resting on cure porches would be better served by getting out in the woods.Fred Rice did not expect such a young and frail woman to answer his ad, but he and his wife Kate agreed that five months of steady work was worth taking. Together Martha and Fred traveled eleven miles from Lower to Middle Saranac Lake and on to Weller Pond to camp. Over the course of the next ten years, an enduring friendship with Mr. and Mrs. Rice would be forged. Fred and Martha returned to the woods during the warm season. They went back to Weller Pond, and they also camped on Hungry Bay on Middle Saranac and Pope Bay on Lower Saranac Lake.Martha found her home with the Rice family, wintering with Fred and Kate in her small house on the old State Road, leaving town towards Tupper Lake. They lived at 65 Algonquin Avenue, now numbered 36 Algonquin Avenue. Convinced of the health benefits of the outdoor life, Martha never returned to the city. Her disease slowly improved, and she lived to age 58. Writer Betsy Tisdale argues that Martha’s books were rather optimistic versions of her life events – she was always frail and struggled with serious health problems related to TB and the surgeries she had undergone.Camping at Weller Pond, Martha passed the time by writing in her journal. Often Fred was away working as a guide, and so left alone at camp, Martha would record her observations of the natural world and the lake wildlife.In 1952, The Healing Woods, was published, with Martha’s last name shorted to Reben. Based on her experiences camping at Weller Pond from 1931 to 1941, the book was a best seller and featured by the family Book Club. Martha also went on to publish The Way of the Wilderness in 1955 and A Sharing of Joy, published in 1963, a few weeks before her death.
Price: 59.98 USD
Location: Lake Worth, Florida
End Time: 2024-12-27T00:29:00.000Z
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Author: Martha Reben
Language: English
Book Title: The Healing Woods
