In 1947, Edwin Way Teale  and his wife Nellie followed the progress of over four months journeying from the Everglades to the summit of Mount Washington. His best selling book, North with the Spring tells the story of this journey. 

This month’s speaker, John Harris, set out to retrace Teale’s route stopping at wild places along the way on the same calendar date Teale had visited.

Harris examined and compared changes in the flora, fauna, and lives of the folks along the route using Teale’s journals and photos. He documents the losses, details the transformations, and celebrates the fact that a remarkable number of East Coast refuges have grown wilder since Teale’s trip.

Harris is a recently retired faculty member In Environmental Science at Franklin Pierce University and holds a Ph.D in British and American Literature. He has organized and helped edit two regional anthologies: Where the Mountain Stands Alone and Beyond the Notches: Stories of North Country New Hampshire.