(1978 | 218 p)
In 1978 an 18-year-old young woman wrote Possum Living to explain and, to a certain degree to teach, about she and her father's life of voluntary simplicity. It made a few waves and then seemed to slip beneath the surface of popular opinion until 2010, when the original publication was found in an attic and subsequently republished. This how-to manual on the simple life was penned by Dolly Freed, a blunt no-nonsense sort who is difficult to ignore. I started the book half-heartedly, expecting to put it down after a few chapters. But the rationale behind the arguments posited in this book are such an amusing mix of naivety and experience I just couldn't stop reading. Although at the time she had no more than a seventh grade education, Freed is clearly a very intelligent young woman. In her chapter on housing she lays out how to buy foreclosed property with as much precision as any real estate lawyer. She also has quite a background in how to make moonshine. At the same time, her youth and lack of experience smacks you in the face. An excellent example of this being her chapter on how to deal with law, which basically proposes that you break out windows and verbally abuse anyone who isn't playing exactly fair. (Thankfully, Freed does retract that philosophy in this newer edition of the book, stating that age and wisdom have changed her thinking in this particular regard.)
If you're interested in back-to-the-land books I'd recommend Possum Living for you. But not so much as a how-to manual (as it was intended) but for the fascinating insight into the life of a young woman in the 1970s who was doing this "back to the land thing." I'd love to have met the 18-year-old Dolly Freed, I imagine she was a force to reckoned with.
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