Cape Cod Book Reviews

Outermost Audio: Listen to Henry Beston in Your Car or at the Beach

Beston's natural masterpiece now available as unabridge audio

by Maggie Kulbokas

I am a fan of audiobooks.  In fact, I frequently bemoan my 14 minute commute because it's not even enough time for a chapter or two. 

Therefore, I was happy when an audio version of Henry Beston's The Outermost House: a Year of Life on the Great Beach of  Cape Cod crossed my desk for review. 

I must confess I've never read Beston's ode to the natural forces and beauty of Eastham's oceanside.  Please don't tell the members of The Henry Beston Society.  I never understood their reverence for the book and the man who wrote it, but I do now.

Over the course of one afternoon, I settled in and listened to the unabridged audio version of this incredible book.  Unlike watching a movie, listening to an audio version is very similar to reading a book or story.  It allows you to be transported to a different place and time and to use your imagination when visualizing scenes and events.

The audio version of Outermost was produced by Silver Hollow Audio with the permission of Beston's daughter, Kate Barnes.  Outermost is first in a line of nature/place stories Silver Hollow Audio plans to produce.  Beston's book is narrated by Brett Barry, part of the husband and wife team who established Silver Hollow audio two years ago. 

Henry Beston is one of the best known and admired "writer-naturalist" of the twentieth century.  A visitor to Eastham, in 1925 he set out to build a house in the dunes of Nauset about two miles south of the Coast Guard station.  In 1926, Beston went to stay at his new, 20x16 home amid the dunes.  Intending to stay only two weeks, Beston remained in his tiny home dubbed Fo'Castle for what would be an entire year.

From the house in the dunes, Beston focused his energies on nature writing and observed his surroundings through the changing seasons.  From the harshest cold to the most blistering heat, Beston wrote of the birds and the waves, the fish and the winds as he encountered them during his stay.  The self-proclaimed "vagabond of the dunes" spent most of his time with nature as his steady companion with occasional visits from the Coast Guard officers and folks in town when he went for supplies.

Beston's words are vivid and precise and it is impossible to not get caught up in his love, enthusiasm and respect for the wilds around him.  As his time in the dunes drew to a close, Beston wrote, "...And because I had known this outer and secret world and been able to live as I had lived, reverence and gratitude greater and deeper than ever possessed me."

Beston eventually left the Outermost House in 1927 and spent the next year perfecting what would be his masterpiece.  The book was published in 1928 and his Cape Cod house was named a National Literary Landmark in 1964, four years before Beston's death.  Fo'Castle was destroyed by a winter storm in 1978. 

Silver Hollow's audio version of Outermost is a thoughtful, impressive presentation of Beston's timeless book.  The narrator, Brett Barry's voice is warm and inviting.  His smooth narration allows you to see the beach, smell the salt air and hear the wind whipping through the sand and the waves crashing against the shore.  His voice combined with Beston's clever and revealing use of words transports you to the Fo'Castle, where you can actually smell the coffee brewing on the stove in the tiny kitchen. 

Whether you are reading this groundbreaking book for the first time or the tenth, you will surely enjoy this unabridged, audio version presented by Silver Hollow.

The audio book is available as a set of five CDs including an interview with Beston's biographer, Dr. Daniel G. Payne for $29.95 on the Silver Hollow Audio website here.   A downloadable digital version will also be made available.  Listen to an audio clip on the Silver Hollow site here.

For more on Henry Beston and the Outermost House, click here and here.