Will Sarvis

Sacred and Ephemeral Will Sarvis

People throughout human history and prehistory have developed profound attachments to places they came to call home. Continuous from primeval times until the present, the association of certain aromas with specific places remains as an evocative force and summons ancient orientations toward various lands. Americans are no exception to such deep sensations, even though they have lived in one of the world's most consistently mobile societies. And, regardless of historic and contemporary relocations, home and place acquire momentous meanings in this vast land of multifarious peoples. This book explores Americans' contemporary, historic, and philosophical perceptions of home, land, and place in cities, suburbs, college towns, and countryside. Part memoir and part history, ultimately this becomes a very personal story of the author's long search for sanctuary.