The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit

by Michael Finkel

Knight, who apparently wished to spend his entire life anonymous, had become “the most famous person in the state of Maine.”

He was confounded by the idea that passing the prime of your life in a cubicle, spending hours a day at a computer, in exchange for money, was considered acceptable, but relaxing in a tent in the woods was disturbed. Observing the trees was indolent; cutting them down was enterprising. What did Knight do for a living? He lived for a living.

Sartre wrote, “Hell is other people.”