Ceremonial Time: Fifteen Thousand Years on One Square Mile

"Ceremonial time" occurs when past, present, and future can be perceived simultaneously. Experienced only rarely, usually during ritual dance, this escape from linear time is the vehicle for John Mitchell's extraordinary writing. In this, his most magical book, he traces the life of a single square mile in New England, from the last ice age through years of human history, including bear shamans, colonists, witches, local farmers, and encroaching industrial "parks."

JOHN HANSON MITCHELL, winner of the 1994 John Burroughs Essay Award, is the author of numerous books. Ceremonial Time is the first in a series of titles in the Scratch Flat Chronicles. His newest book is An Eden of Sorts: A Natural History of My Feral Garden.