Over the course of his career, Hal Borland wrote eight nature books and hundreds of “outdoor editorials” for the Sunday New York Times, extolling the virtues of the countryside. From his home on one hundred acres in rural Connecticut, Borland wrote of the natural wonders, both big and small, that surrounded him every day. Beyond Your Doorstep is his guide to venturing into the outdoors around your home, wherever it is, and discovering the countryside within reach.

The beauty to be found in roadsides, meadows, woodlands, and bogs are explored in elegant prose. Borland takes up birds, animals, and plants—both edible and poisonous—and the miraculous ways in which they are threaded together throughout the natural world. Part introductory field guide and part incitement to exploration, Beyond Your Doorstep is a classic of nature writing and a must-read for anyone looking to renew his or her relationship to the outdoors.

“Breathes a tonic serenity rewarding to all country dwellers and those who wish they were.” —Audubon

“Reading this book by Hal Borland is like paying him a visit in his country house on the Housatonic River at the edge of the Berkshires in Salisbury, Conn.” —The New York Times Book Review

“This is a splendid book to teach us all the interdependence of animal and plant life, and somehow make us feel a little more secure in the ordered world of the great outdoors.” —Christian Herald

Hal Borland (1900–1978) was a nature writer and novelist who produced numerous bestselling books including memoirs and young adult classics, as well as decades of nature writing for the New York Times. Borland considered himself a “natural philosopher,” and he was interested in exploring the way human life was bound to the greater world of plants, animals, and natural processes.