Dan Price opens Radical Simplicity with a photograph of the cabin he built at the age of 16 in the woods behind his house. More robust than your average play-fort, the cabin portends Price's life-long love affair with building his own simple dwellings. Though subtitled, "creating an authentic life," Radical Simplicity is less a how-to book on self-sustaining living and more a loosely narrated and superbly illustrated account of Price's foray into the simple life. A modern-day Thoreau, he tells us:
Here on the raggedy edge of the 21st century, with nations warring and humans crisscrossing the globe like frightened jackrabbits, forever in search of some sense of happiness and security, there's still much to be learned by simply questioning all the assumptions about the lifestyles that society handed each of us at birth.
Important new discoveries are waiting to be made. These discoveries do not lie in the ever-expanding 'information' we are all gathering. I believe that long ago, man abandoned and forgot all he ever really needed to know about living a harmonious life with the earth. But if we are able to awaken to what is essential for our happiness, there's still hope that each of us may lead an authentic life.
Here on the raggedy edge of the 21st century, with nations warring and humans crisscrossing the globe like frightened jackrabbits, forever in search of some sense of happiness and security, there's still much to be learned by simply questioning all the assumptions about the lifestyles that society handed each of us at birth.
Important new discoveries are waiting to be made. These discoveries do not lie in the ever-expanding 'information' we are all gathering. I believe that long ago, man abandoned and forgot all he ever really needed to know about living a harmonious life with the earth. But if we are able to awaken to what is essential for our happiness, there's still hope that each of us may lead an authentic life.
Price is less a writer than an illustrator, less an illustrator than a visionary. The choices he makes are indeed radical. After 10 years of marriage and with two young children, Price splits with his wife Lynne to pursue a "Thoreauvian lifestyle." He chances upon an idyllic meadow outside of Joseph, Oregon, whose owners allow him to live upon it for $50 annually plus general grounds maintenance.
Overjoyed with the offer, Price begins his living experiment in an old tipi purchased from a local cowboy. Tipi-living leads to variations that include earthen huts, a beach shack, and a hobbit house along with a variety of outbuildings: a naturally-composting outhouse, multiple saunas, and even an office, where Price keeps a photocopier for churning out Moonlight Chronicles, a series of hand-lettered and illustrated diaries he self-publishes.
Yes, during the decade and a half that Price lives in the meadow, he continually produces, publishes, and distributes his magazine. He is a productive and creative spirit, not content to merely escape the rat race but driven deeply by a need to document and disseminate ideas he knows could be a panacea for society's ills. This doesn't go unnoticed.
Overjoyed with the offer, Price begins his living experiment in an old tipi purchased from a local cowboy. Tipi-living leads to variations that include earthen huts, a beach shack, and a hobbit house along with a variety of outbuildings: a naturally-composting outhouse, multiple saunas, and even an office, where Price keeps a photocopier for churning out Moonlight Chronicles, a series of hand-lettered and illustrated diaries he self-publishes.
Yes, during the decade and a half that Price lives in the meadow, he continually produces, publishes, and distributes his magazine. He is a productive and creative spirit, not content to merely escape the rat race but driven deeply by a need to document and disseminate ideas he knows could be a panacea for society's ills. This doesn't go unnoticed.
One rainy day in March before setting out to walk across Oregon, Price calls up the Simple Shoe Company and asks to speak to the owner about ordering a pair of shoes for his journey. Not only does he get the shoes for free, but the owner is so impressed with Price's story that he "offered (Price) a job as roving-ambassador-who-is-seeking-the-secret-to-life-by-drawing-stuff." In other words, Simple Shoes would not only be paying Price to travel all over the world and write and draw about his experiences, but Price's Moonlight Chronicles would now be published with Simple Shoes' catalog and sent out to thousands of Simple customers internationally.
My little Moonlight Chronicles about the simple life went from around 100 eager subscribers to between 30 and 50,000 unknown readers and the quiet hobo was instantly flung out into the larger world, having photo shows in France and crisscrossing the continent drawing up a storm.
My little Moonlight Chronicles about the simple life went from around 100 eager subscribers to between 30 and 50,000 unknown readers and the quiet hobo was instantly flung out into the larger world, having photo shows in France and crisscrossing the continent drawing up a storm.
Soon Price becomes a simple-life evangelist - hiking, camping, and spreading the natural word to the far corners of the globe. Along the way he manages to pick up the sponsorship of Sierra Designs as well, who keep him supplied with tents he uses during his journeys and at home.
If you loved Walden, if you've ever used the words "bioponics" or "permaculture," if the notion of Neil Young and Willie Nelson using biodiesel fuel in their tour buses makes you happy, if you know what an earthship is, wear hemp clothing, or compost your waste, then Radical Simplicity is a book for you. Dan Price lovingly documents his years in the meadow with words, photographs, and illustrations, and Price's illustrations alone are reason enough to buy this small book. Radical Simplicity is an inspiration to anyone who aspires to visual journaling of any form, documenting as it does in detail its author's life in letter and line.
If you loved Walden, if you've ever used the words "bioponics" or "permaculture," if the notion of Neil Young and Willie Nelson using biodiesel fuel in their tour buses makes you happy, if you know what an earthship is, wear hemp clothing, or compost your waste, then Radical Simplicity is a book for you. Dan Price lovingly documents his years in the meadow with words, photographs, and illustrations, and Price's illustrations alone are reason enough to buy this small book. Radical Simplicity is an inspiration to anyone who aspires to visual journaling of any form, documenting as it does in detail its author's life in letter and line.
