Ora E. Anderson: The Soul of the Woods
It is Ora Anderson’s beloved farm that takes center stage in Soul of the Woods, just as it did in Ora’s life. This DVD and companion booklet give rare insight into this remarkable man and how, over the course of his life, a worn-out Ohio hill farm was transformed into a wooded nature preserve teeming with biodiversity.
Take a walk with Ora through his land, listen to his story—and, perhaps, to the “soul of the woods” inherent within us all. The accompanying book- let features Anderson’s insightful essays on the history of the land, along with selected poems—all beautifully illustrated with original watercolors and drawings of the Anderson farm.
– DVD produced by Jean Andrews and Steven Fetsch, booklet edited by Deborah Griffith, illustrations by Barbara Sheriff Kostohryz
All proceeds from the sale of this booklet and video are donated to the Ora E. Anderson Conservation Fund for Appalachian Ohio.
“Always there has been, and always there will be a dependence upon a minority, a small minority, for yelling about it, for crying about it, for weeping about it, for pushing about it to save the remnants out there.”
– Ora Anderson in Ora E. Anderson: The Soul of the Woods
“When I planted this old barren farm right after I bought it, it only had about three acres of forest out of the 98 acres. But now it is a nature preserve that is absolutely balm
to my soul, it really is … I’m sure I’ll not be awarded any medals for it, but nevertheless I’m very satis ed with the results.”
– Ora Anderson in Ora E. Anderson: The Soul of the Woods
In this companion booklet to the DVD of the same title, Ora Anderson’s insight- ful essays tell the history of the land on and around his beloved farm in Athens County, Ohio—a worn out hill farm he transformed into a wooded nature pre- serve teeming with biodiversity. The essays along with selected poems by this “artist of habitats” are beautifully illustrated with original watercolors and draw- ings of the Anderson farm. The writings reveal much of Ora’s personal philoso- phy regarding nature and the nature of life: “It simply pleases me to trace the alphabet of tracks and digs and the music of passing sounds that tell the stories of all that own this farm fully as much as I.”
—Edited by Deborah Griffith, illustrations by Barbara Sheriff Kostohryz
All proceeds from the sale of this booklet and video are donated to the Ora E. Anderson Conservation Fund for Appalachian Ohio.
I greeted old friends.
Trillium stood on tiptoe
To touch my lowered hand.
—from The Gathering by Ora Anderson, in The Soul of the Woods
You whisper
And I hear birdsong.
Each hour with you is April.
—from Renewal by Ora Anderson, in The Soul of the Woods
“They are my love letters, for my emotions still are stirred by such small events as a visit to my backyard by a flock of hungry wild turkeys, and the slow but deliberate arrival at my pond edge of the ancient old snapping turtle that feasted last summer on seven offspring of the resident Canada goose pair. Even now, in the late autumn of my years, my appetite remains unsated. Thankfully, the diet is nonfattening.” —Ora Anderson, in Out of the Woods
“Merely noting moments of the past brings them bubbling up in the mind like a well-done stew rich and tasty with the spices of childhood, the mystery of puberty, the joys of romance and love, of family and career, of iris and ferns, of birds and mountains and outer bank islands.”
—Ora Anderson, in Out of the Woods
“I know my own October well, and yet I feel the sun of April in my heart.”
—from The Lingerer by Ora Anderson, in Out of the Woods
Ora Anderson Conservation Fund 