Helen K . Nearing , Maine Writer , Dies at 91 By JOHN T . McQUISTONPublished : Tuesday , September 19 , 1995 Helen K . Nearing , who with her husband , Scott Nearing , wrote about leaving the congested streets of Manhattan to find peace and happiness through hard work and self - sufficiency on a New England farm , died on Sunday in an automobile accident near her home in Harborside , Me . She was 91 . Mrs . Nearing , whose husband died at 100 in 1983 , had continued to live alone in the farmhouse they built 40 years ago overlooking Penobscot Bay . She was killed when a car she was driving struck a tree , said Eliot Coleman , a friend who lives on a neighboring farm . Between them , Mrs . Nearing and her husband wrote more than 50 books during their half - century of homesteading , including " Living the Good Life " and " Continuing the Good Life , " written initially in pamphlet form and then published by Schocken in 1954 and 1970 , respectively . Although written shortly after the Depression , both books became primers for thousands of urbanites who dropped out of the corporate world in the early 1970 ' s and headed for the quiet countryside . Followers describe the Nearings as the " senior gurus " of the back - to - the - land movement . " Materialism does not produce happiness , " Mrs . Nearing told those who came to tour her Forest Farm and marvel that , in an age of mass communications , she still made do without radio or television . " She gave in and had a telephone installed about 10 years ago so she could keep in touch with all her friends around the world , " said Mr . Coleman , who with his wife , Barbara Damrosch , is host of a cable television series called " Natural Gardening . " A lifelong vegetarian , Mrs . Nearing also did not take aspirin or use a credit card . Instead , she helped to restore the soil of her farm , build a stone farmhouse and outbuildings and plant an organic garden . In her pantry , she filled barrels with flour and sugar , much like New England dwellers a hundred or more years before her . " In November , the rafters in our big country kitchen are hung with braids of onions and shallots , with ears of dried corn , with drying herbs ( mint , tarragon , thyme , parsley , celery , sage and lovage ) , " she once wrote in a letter to The New York Times . " Of bottled canned goods in the kitchen cellar , we have 160 quarts of vegatable soup and tomato juice , 132 quarts of rose hips , 80 quarts of applesauce , 146 quarts of raspberries , and jars and jars of jam , " she wrote . Mrs . Nearing drew a parallel between the people who immigrated to New England in the 1700 ' s and " the many young people of today who find no satisfactory way to exercise or develop their talents and interests in modern city or suburb . "" They are willing and eager to clear their land , build their homes , dig and cultivate their own gardens and subsist on their own work , " she said . " They are finding out that it is possible to live daily self - sufficient lives even in the middle of the 20 th century . " Believing in the adage " waste not , want not , " 낭비 하 지 않 으면 부족 함 이 없 다 . she wrote about all her experiences , providing New Age homesteaders with 10 - and 20 - year projects leading toward " the good life . "" The Maple Sugar Book , " which she wrote with her husband and which was published by Schocken in 1950 , told not only of the art and history of sugaring but also of the practical details of sugar making . Another primer , " Building and Using Our Sun - Heated Greenhouse , " published in 1971 by Dutton and now out of print , told of how to grow vegetables year - round in New England without artificial heating . Among the books that Mrs . Nearing wrote alone were " Wise Words on the Good Life " ( Schocken , 1983 ) and " Simple Food for the Good Life " ( Stillpoint , 1983 ) , which she described as " an anti - cooking book that advocates fresh raw foods and minimal cooking . " Her latest work , to be published this month by Tilbury House , " Light on Aging and Dying , " is a collection of quotations inspired by the death of her husband 12 years ago . Mrs . Nearing , who was born in Ridgewood , N . J . , graduated from Ridgewood High School , then traveled extensively aboard , studying the violin , which she gave up for gardening when she married Mr . Nearing . The Nearings began their long journey in search of the good life in 1932 , when Mr . Nearing , a professor of economics , left the academic world and moved far away from New York City and the Depression to the wilderness of Vermont , where they built their first farm . Twenty years later , feeling crowded by a nearby ski lift and growing tourism , they headed for Maine . They kept a car and a pickup truck but permitted no machines on the farm that were not run by human or animal power . According to the Nearings ' wishes , an education and retreat center is to be established on Forest Farm after their deaths . The nonprofit center , to be called the Good Life Center , is to be administered and financed in part by the Trust for Public Land of Boston , an organization that preserves rural sites and crafts . The Social Science Institute , formed in 1953 to print political and economic pamphlets written by Mr . Nearing , will become part of the Good Life Center . Mrs . Nearing is survived by a sister , Alice Vaughan of Dorset , Vt . ; a niece , Barbara Tuttle , and a nephew , C . B . Vaughan , both of Dorset , and a stepson , Robert Nearing of Troy , Pa . A memorial service will be held at 2 P . M . on Sunday , Oct . 1 , at the Brookville Community Center in South Brookville , Me . http : / / www . goodlife . org /