The Star in the Sycamore

Tom Springer

ISBN 10: 1950659658 / ISBN 13: 9781950659654

Published by Mission Point Press, 2020

About this Item

Seller Inventory # LU-9781950659654

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Star in the Sycamore
• Publisher: Mission Point Press
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1950659658
• ISBN 13: 9781950659654
• Binding: Hardback
• Illustrator: Dengate, Patrick
• Condition: New
• Dimensions: 15.6W x 2.24H x 23.39D centimeters 15.6 centimeters width by 2.24 centimeters height by 23.39 centimeters depth
• Weight: 667 grams

About this title

Synopsis

For Tom Springer, the usual four seasons can't begin to describe the mini-solstices of a Midwestern year: "Does summer really begin on June 21? No, the first ripe Michigan strawberries say summer to me ... just as a sumac that flames crimson in an August fencerow sends up the first semaphore flag of autumn. While these milestones aren't measured by celestial reckoning, learning to know and observe them can greatly enrich a life."

The Star in the Sycamore takes readers on a journey of rare insight and local discovery. In the ecstasy of a dusk feeding frenzy, Springer catches a slew of fat bass and toothsome pike in "a little river gone wild in the city." In his love for country dogs, un-pampered on their beds of barn straw, he sees an ancient link to musky, wild pleasures that "fur babies" will never know. In his quest to learn dozens of star constellations, he reveals a striking connection between stars, trees and souls.

Along the way, he meets people forever changed and healed by wildness. A combat soldier on a flight home, whose agitated demeanor grows calm and joyful as he describes an upcoming leave in the north woods. A burned-out nonprofit executive who becomes a native plant herbalist to cure herself and then the bodies and psyches of others. Through it all, Springer weaves humor, grace and a luminous sense of the ordinary.

About the Author

Tom Springer writes about the natural world and how people can live more deeply in the "wild nearby" through conservation, observation and contemplation. He has spent more than 30 years as a writer, editor and manager, most notably for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the University of Notre Dame. His first collection of essays, Looking for Hickories (University of Michigan Press) was named a Michigan Notable Book. Tom's essays regularly appear in publications such as Michigan Blue magazine, Notre Dame magazine and Front Porch Republic, and have aired in spoken form on National Public Radio.