Nature's People

When Emily Dickinson died in 1886, her sister learned of a cache of unknown poems which she was determined to see published. In time the task fell to Mabel Loomis Todd, a socialite in town who just so happened to be having a long-term affair with the sisters’ brother, Austin. It is because of Mabel Loomis Todd that we know Emily Dickinson today.

While Dickinson scholars have parsed her contributions to Emily’s portfolio of poems and letters, Mabel Todd’s involvement in the nascent practice of preservation of natural places has gone largely unreported. It was in 1908 when she signed papers for an undeveloped tract of an island in Muscongus Bay, Maine, where her family summered as rusticators for many years. Then through the foresight of her daughter Millicent Todd Bingham and the leadership of the National Audubon Society’s John Baker, the island first hosted the Audubon Nature Camp for Adult Leaders in 1936.

Over the decades, the summer endeavor has evolved into the historic Hog Island Audubon Camp, a worldwide landmark center of nature education and birding. How all that came about it is the stuff of Nature’s People.

Book club questions for Nature's People by Tom Schaefer

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

The expression “Nature’s People” was used by Emily Dickinson in a poem referring to wild critters, not human beings. She wrote,

Several of Nature’s People

I know and they know me -

I feel for them a transport

Of Cordiality.

Have you had any encounters with wild animals in which you felt like they understood or responded to you, or you especially understood them? How did that make you feel?

Human relationships can be surprisingly complicated, especially when it comes to love. Mrs. Todd wrote her love for Austin Dickinson was extra special, though she still unquestionably loved her husband, David. Can individual people honestly love more than one person so intently?

There is something about islands that can be extra special. A saying goes, “Once you’ve slept on an island you’ll never be the same.” Have you had that island experience? Are there other places you’ve gone that have changed you?

Financial problems looked like they would doom the Hog Island Audubon Camp until one woman stepped forward with the passion and skills to keep the venerable old place solvent. Have you or someone you know tackled an “impossible problem” and somehow worked out a positive solution?

Mabel Loomis Todd’s Camp Mavooshen was more than a family camping site. Summers there had her comparing it to “God’s own heaven.” Have you found such a special place that does good things for your well-being and mental health?

David Todd’s astronomical expeditions took his family to “once-in-a-lifetime” travel destinations. What special places have you traveled to that still really impress you. Why? What was it about that place sets it apart from others?

Some local Mainers in the day were not happy with summer outsiders coming up and “taking over.” Are you aware of situations where “rooted people” were displaced by “others” who moved in with little consideration for those already there?

Historian Frank Graham Jr. proposes the National Audubon Society is “one group of people organized to get others looking at the wild world, not with indifference or even with fear, but with love.” Do you know stories of other organizations where love makes the difference?

Nature's People Book Club Questions PDF

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