Helen Knothe Nearing was an American author, advocate of simple living and a lifelong vegetarian.
Biography
Helen Knothe was born on February 23, 1904 in Ridgewood, New Jersey as the daughter of Frank Knothe, who had a clothing business. She grew up in an economically comfortable family of Theosophists and was a lifelong vegetarian. She graduated from Ridgewood High School and studied the violin internationally. As a young woman, she had a romantic relationship with Jiddu Krishnamurti. She and Scott Nearing started a relationship in 1928 and married nearly 20 years later, on December 12, 1947 when she was 43 and he was 64. In 1934, the couple left New York City for Winhall in rural Vermont, where they had purchased a rather large forest tract for $2200 and a moderate-sized farm for $2500. They aspired to live a more “purposeful” life and improve their health while disassociating from modern society. At the homestead, they lived a largely ascetic and self-reliant life, growing much of their own food and putting up nine stone buildings over the course of two decades. Cash was earned from producing maple syrup and maple sugar from the trees on their land and from Scott Nearing's occasional paid lectures. However, in her book Meanwhile, Next Door to the Good Life, Jean Hay Bright documents that the Nearings were both heavily subsidized by substantial inheritances which supported their forest farm. In 1934, around the time they purchased the Vermont property, Helen inherited between $30,000–$40,000 from former suitor J. J. van der Leeuw. Scott received an inheritance from his father that was said to be "at least a million dollars" in 1940 according to Nearing's son Robert. Hay Bright's calculations make clear that while very hard working homesteaders, the Nearings never came close to supporting themselves on their "cash crops" as they state.
Organic farming
Helen and Scott Nearing left the Vermont homestead in 1952 after the area saw an increase in ski tourism, moving to a homestead in Brooksville, Maine, on Cape Rosier, where they continued growing much of their own food using organic farming practices. They cultivated blueberries as a cash crop. In 1954, the couple published Living the Good Life which inspired many young, educated Americans to create simpler, rural lifestyles and the back-to-the-land movement of the 1960s and 70s.
Vegetarianism
In 1980, Nearing published her vegetarian cookbook “Simple Food for the Good Life.” In 2016, 20 years after her death, the Portland Press Herald reported: "The book, which is still in print, contains the ultra-simple recipes for which she was known. It was here she famously called herself “a far-from-enthusiastic and qualified cook.”" In the summer of 1991, Helen and Scott were inducted into the Vegetarian Hall of Fame of the North American Vegetarian Society.
Death and legacy
Helen Nearing died in 1995 as the result of a single-car accident in Harborside, Maine. The Maine estate was left for The Trust for Public Land which established the Good Life Center to continue the Nearing's legacy. The farm managers who live at the farm must eat only vegetarian food on the property. The Thoreau Institute acquired the papers of the couple.
The Maple Sugar Book: being a plain practical account of the Art of Sugaring designed to promote an acquaintance with the Ancient as well as the Modern practise, together with remarks on Pioneering as a way of living in the twentieth century. New York: John Day Co., 1950.
