Chasing Eden is about seekers, Americans searching for their Eden, longing for a Promised Land, a utopia somewhere out on the horizon. With his usual deep perception, humor, and grace, Howard Mansfield writes about “a small gathering of Americans” united by longing and devotion in their search for something perfect here on earth, a goal that is ever receding. Mansfield illuminates how this longing—for God, for freedom, for peace—can be found in every era, and gives form and force to our lives in our pursuit of happiness—“the primary occupation of every American.” In this remarkable book, Howard Mansfield re-mystifies the cold, hard land of the American northeast. He unearths parades of seekers— Shakers who love God and TV, divorced men who haunt the hiking huts of Mount Washington, Pocumtucks who paddle downstream to offer a mercy that will go unreturned. His prose is at turns arresting with its poignancy and laugh-out-loud funny. It’s good to go on this jaunt with him. He has a knack for spotting the wild characters that lead us into the electric realm between memory and hope. —Lulu Miller, author of Why Fish Don’t Exist and co-host of Radiolab Many of us are content to lead our lives unconcerned with the big questions our short time on this earth constantly pose. This book focuses on those who do search—relentlessly—for meaning. —Ken Burns, documentary filmmaker Howard Mansfield journeys into stories in the same way one sets out to climb a mountain: with care and preparation. He is the most insightful of historians and journalists, and there are stories here, and reflections, that will leave you gobsmacked as to how you could have gone this long without hearing them, and holding them dear. The Eden that Mansfield is chasing is less a place than a promise—but no matter, Chasing Eden is necessary reading for anyone with a mind, a heart, and a conscience. —J.C. Hallman, author of In Utopia: Six Kinds of Eden and the Search for a Better Paradise Howard Mansfield is the author of nine books about preservation, architecture, and history, most recently Summer Over Autumn (Bauhan 2017). He has contributed to the New York Times, the Washington Post, Historic Preservation, and Yankee. He and his wife, writer Sy Montgomery, live in a 130-year-old house in Hancock, New Hampshire.