Author Talk with Ben Shattuck - Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau

REGISTER HERE. Registration is free but required, and space is limited.

Join us as we welcome author Ben Shattuck to the bookshop to talk about his book Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau on Friday July 22nd at 6:30 pm. Shattuck will sign copies of the book after his presentation. Copies will be for sale at the event. If you can’t make it in person, you can order a signed copy to be picked up at the shop or shipped to you.

The event will be held outside under our event tent behind the bookshop. The shop will be open for browsing before the event. In the case of rain, the event will primarily be a meet & greet and a signing inside the shop, due to lack of indoor space. Either way you’ll get the opportunity to connect with the author!

ABOUT THE BOOK

A New England Indie Bestseller

A Wall Street Journal Best Book of Spring, a Town & Country Magazine Must Read Book of Spring, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Week,  and a Rumpus Most Anticipated Book of the Year

“A gorgeous reminder that walking is the most radical form of locomotion nowadays.” — Nick Offerman

“I think Thoreau would have liked this book, and that’s a high recommendation.” — Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

On an autumn morning in 1849, Henry David Thoreau stepped out his front door to walk the beaches of Cape Cod. Over a century and a half later, Ben Shattuck does the same. With little more than a loaf of bread, brick of cheese, and a notebook, Shattuck sets out to retrace Thoreau’s path through the Cape’s outer beaches, from the elbow to Provincetown’s fingertip.

This is the first of six journeys taken by Shattuck, each one inspired by a walk once taken by Henry David Thoreau. After the Cape, Shattuck goes up Mount Katahdin and Mount Wachusett, down the coastline of his hometown, and then through the Allagash. Along the way, Shattuck encounters unexpected characters, landscapes, and stories, seeing for himself the restorative effects that walking can have on a dampened spirit. Over years of following Thoreau, Shattuck finds himself uncovering new insights about family, love, friendship, and fatherhood, and understanding more deeply the lessons walking can offer through life’s changing seasons.

Intimate, entertaining, and beautifully crafted, Six Walks is a resounding tribute to the ways walking in nature can inspire us all.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ben Shattuck, a former Teaching-Writing Fellow and graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, is a recipient of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize and a 2019 Pushcart Prize. He is the director of the Cuttyhunk Island Writers’ Residency and curator of the Dedee Shattuck Gallery. His writing can be found in the Harvard Review, The Common, the Paris Review Daily, Lit Hub, and Kinfolk Magazine. He lives with his wife and daughter on the coast of Massachusetts, where he owns and runs a general store built in 1793.

Event address:

Titcomb’s Bookshop
432 Route 6A, East Sandwich, MA 02537