Stone by Stone
The Magnificent History in New England’s Stone Walls
Bestselling & Award Winning
In the fall of 2002, Stone by Stone went through multiple hard-cover printings and remained for weeks on the bestseller list of the New England Independent Booksellers Association. In 2003 it won the Connecticut Book Award for nonfiction, as awarded by Connecticut Center for the Book, a Library of Congress affiliate. The preceding winner for 2002 was Michael Pollan’s Botany of Desire. The paper back was published in 2004. After selling for 20 years, Tantor Media dubbed it a classic and brought out an audio version read by the author in 2022. This inspired the publisher-agent-author to nominate it as a classic for the National Outdoor Book Award in 2025. A mountaineering expedition book to Mount Denali was this years’ classic winner. Not quite the same thing.
Jacket Description
There once may have been 250,000 miles of stone walls in America’s Northeast, stretching farther than the distance to the moon. They took three billion man-hours to build. And even though most are crumbling today, they contain a magnificent scientific and cultural story-about the geothermal forces that formed their stones, the tectonic movements that brought them to the surface, the glacial tide that broke them apart, the earth that held them for so long, and about the humans who built them.
Stone walls tell nothing less than the story of how New England was formed, and in Robert Thorson’s hands they live and breathe. “The stone wall is the key that links the natural history and human history of New England,” Thorson writes. Millions of years ago, New England’s stones belonged to ancient mountains thrust up by prehistoric collisions between continents. During the Ice Age, pieces were cleaved off by glaciers and deposited-often hundreds of miles away-when the glaciers melted. Buried again over centuries by forest and soil buildup, the stones gradually worked their way back to the surface, only to become impediments to the farmers cultivating the land in the eighteenth century, who piled them into “linear landfills,” a place to hold the stones. Usually the biggest investment on a farm, often exceeding that of the land and buildings combined, stone walls became a defining element of the Northeast’s landscape, and a symbol of the shift to an agricultural economy.
Stone walls layer time like Russian dolls, their smallest elements reflecting the longest spans, and Thorson urges us to study them, for each stone has its own story. Linking geological history to the early American experience, Stone by Stone presents a fascinating picture of the land the Pilgrims settled, allowing us to see and understand it with new eyes.
Blurbs
“If I were to own just one book on the stonewalls of New England, it would be Robert Thorson’s.” Tom Wessels.
“Now I know why all the stone walls I’ve ever stumbled across in the northeast woods are thigh-high–along with about a thousand other interesting details that shed illuminating light on the human history of this sweet region.” Bill McKibben
“A nature lover’s ‘must read.’”Chet Raymo.
“Robert Thorson offers the most complete natural history ever written about New EnglandÕs fabled stone walls… Stone by Stone should be an instant necessity for anyone who wonders why our landscape looks the way it does.” Kevin Gardner.
Reviews
Washington Post: “If the preservation effort needs a manifesto, Thorson has one.”
Orion: “[Few geologists] dare to make plain their passion for rocks, as Thorson does, much less linger on the sensual details of their medium: its color, texture, sound, and odor. And most geological writing doesn’t venture very far or boldly into the realm of human culture, an area to which Thorson’s scientific expertise makes the most startling contribution.”
The Boston Globe: “An open invitation to head into the country oneself and explore a stone wall.”
The Providence Sunday Journal: “Rarely has a book on so mundane a topic delivered so much information in so enjoyable a manner. Thorson is a fine writer, a scientist with the sensibility of a poet.”
Dallas Morning News: “A fascinating study of New England’s landmarks that are as much about art as geology.”
Booklist: ” An enlightening excursion that goes well beyond the romantic notions surrounding the walls.”
Audio Version
Publisher: Tantor Media. October 25, 2022. Running time 6 hours 27 minutes.
Reader: By the author, Robert M. Thorson
Access: Available through libraries and for purchase and download at Audible and similar outlets.
Link to the book website on the Stone Wall Initiative.