I just drew this yesterday, July 24th, 2022, by request of the publisher, Editions Ulmer, which had decided to add a dustjacket at the last minute, and needed something for the flap inside of the back cover. This week, the book goes to press.
I made a color version of this drawing as my winter 2022-2023 holiday card.
Lila Hervé-Gruyer, the book’s editor at Editions Ulmer wrote the story of how she found the book, which she sent to me translated into English (below). It will be included in the finished book, in French, of course.
How Living on the Earth became Vivre sur la Terre…
The story of this book is magical. For several years, I have dreamed of getting my hands on this mysterious book, but second-hand copies are sold at a high price on the Internet. One day, I came across a website that sold the Spanish version. When I received it, I was moved.
Alicia’s drawings and words resonate very strongly with me. This 19 year old hippie embodies a freedom, a simplicity and a carefree attitude that we miss today. An almost dreamed life, a total commitment. Alicia proposes to live like a flowing river or a growing tree. To live in the middle of nature, in community, out of the consumer society and far from capitalism.
50 years after the first edition of Living on the Earth, the biosphere is enoxerably degrading and anxiety is rising, even faster than the ocean level. Alicia reminds us that ecological movements are not new. Today too often derided, the hippies had the courage to question the very foundations of a capitalist society. It does a lot of good to delve into their legacy, full of struggles and inventiveness. Reading Alicia, the answer is here, almost obvious, in front of our eyes. I am convinced that living on love alone is not naive, but one of the possible solutions to face this ecological crisis. A fair, beautiful, desirable, joyful and fun path.
One day, I bring this treasure to the office, to share with my colleagues. This hippie bible is a literary UFO! A bestseller that has gone around the world, translated into Japanese, Korean, Spanish… And sold more than 350,000 copies for the American version.
We bet with Emmanuelle and Antoine, Ulmer’s managers, that it could work. I contacted Alicia who quickly told me that the book would be published in English to celebrate its 50th birthday! What a happy coincidence, life is well done. Virginie started translating and Alicia agreed to rewrite everything by hand in French, a language she does not speak. Once the translation is finalized, Alicia starts writing, courageously. She spends more than 6 days on some pages. Until she injures her hand and the project comes to a halt.
That’s where Harmonie the aptly named comes in. I was working with this potter-designer-artist on another book. I had shown her Alicia’s book and she too had fallen in love with it. She often asked me about the translation and I was disappointed to tell her that it wasn’t going well… Until I received a handwritten note from Harmonie: her handwriting looked like Alicia’s! So Harmonie started to rewrite the book with a lot of enthusiasm. 248 pages later, Agathe proofreads, Camille prepares the files, it goes to the printer’s.
This is why you can now hold this precious book in your hands. The moving testimony of an emancipated young woman living as close to nature as possible, patiently rewritten to be as close as possible to the original. Because in 2022, we continue to have a great need for Peace and Love.
I wish you all to live closer to the flowers!
Lila, editor of the book.
And here is the note from artist Harmonie Begon, who beautifully hand-lettered Vivre sur la Terre after I had to stop a year ago, due to an injury to my right arm and shoulder.
Dear Alicia,
When Lila told me about your book, I thought it was beautiful. When I got my hands on it, I thought it was sublime.
I have a special affection for notebooks and journals. I fill many of them, with words and drawings, like you.
Writing by hand each of your pages was an intense experience. For I did not only write, I read, I integrated, I almost lived these observations. I have traveled. I felt like leaving my desk a hundred times to cook, tinker, create, camp, repair, build. That’s the beauty of your book, it makes you want to live.
To live for real, to do with what we have. To be inventive, creative, to learn. To be outside. To take the time to do.
“This book is for those who would rather chop wood than work in an office to pay for gas and electricity.”
I find myself in these words, and I like to believe that we can still have this logic of things, that it is not too late.
I believe in the importance of passing on knowledge and skills, the importance of sharing, always, what has been shared with us, because nothing can compare to that feeling, the one that comes when you have accomplished something yourself, when you are capable. When you have been able to do it.
Thank you for your words, your poetry, and your music that lulled my long days of writing.
Illustrated with art from Living on the Earth. Lisa is a skillful interviewer!
I am happy to say that I’ve now watched Agnes Varda’s joyously surrealist film about her uncle, my artist mentor, Jean “Yanco” Varda, many times. I also linked it to the page in my online store for the blue on blue t-shirt I designed with the Living on the Earth houseboat pages, which arose from my years living at Gate Five, Sausalito. I made a black and white version of the t-shirt as well, with the movie link there too.
Here’s where I found these pages online:
https://aliciabaylaurel.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/76197-aliciabaylaurelwildersummer-fall-final.pdf
Artist Jessica King created and hosted the Zoom launch party for Living on the Earth – The Musical, and the book, Being of the Sun, on the autumnal equinox, September 22, 2021.
A diverse group of Alicia Bay Laurel’s friends joined the party and shared their stories. Alicia opened the event by singing the autumn equinox chant from Being of the Sun, accompanying herself on a zither. Here is Jessica’s film of the whole gathering!
The woman in the cover photo is California digital graphic designer and fine artist Karen Tsugawa, who coached Alicia over Zoom , and collaborated with her in creating the digital page layouts of the new editions of Living on the Earth and Being of the Sun, as well as the two book trailers, among other digital design projects.
I first met Art at my first Renaissance Pleasure Faire, when it was still a fundraiser for Pacifica Radio’s Los Angeles station, KPFK, which was the soundtrack of my childhood, growing up with leftist parents in Los Angeles.
A couple of years later, he offered me my first real job – doing graphic layout at the Freep in the summer of 1966. There, based on conversations with friends also working there, I plotted my course to the Haight-Ashbury, where my real life began.
A letter I sent to these same friends from Ann Arbor, Michigan, which they placed in Letters to the Editor unbeknownst to me, resulted in a write-up by Joan Didion in the Saturday Evening Post in January 1967, titled “Alicia and the Underground Press.”
The no-computer layout skills I acquired at the Freep served me well in creating the first edition of Living on the Earth in 1970.
Art and I remained in touch over the years, and I saw him again when he was in his 90s in Joshua Tree, California.
https://www.lamag.com/askchris/la-first-alternative-newspaper/
Buy the 50th Anniversary, 5th English language edition of Living on the Earth here.
After the first four editions of Living on the Earth went out of print, I began selling in my online store the remainders I had previously bought from the publishers. When it became clear that I would run out of books within a year, I began looking for a publisher with whom to collaborate on a new edition, which, coincidently, would be published on the 50th anniversary of the first (Bookworks, 1970) and second (Vintage/Random House 1971) editions.
What I really wanted was a publisher who would allow me to create, for the first time, the digital layouts for the pages and cover, and give me the book designer’s typical control over the ink and page colors, and the paper and cover stock. I was very fortunate to find good collaborators in the friendly people at Echo Point Books & Media in Brattleboro, Vermont. Thank you very much, Marshall Glickman, Fred Lee, Mark Chickering and Anneka Kindler!
My digital graphic skills were limited, but I was coached over Zoom by the excellent digital designer, Karen Tsugawa, who I first met when we both had art in a group exhibition in Osaka, Japan, in 2019. Every new skill I learn from her brings me joy.
People ask me how the 5th edition is different from the first four editions. Here is how:
1. We decided to omit most of the appendices, because the information in them becomes outdated from one edition to the next. Most of the information in the appendices is easy to find on the Internet.
2. I wrote a new preface, explaining how, where and why I began creating this book.
3. Greg Castillo, a professor at the school of architecture at University of California at Berkeley, wrote a new foreword for the book. Greg, one of the curators of the Hippie Modernism exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) in 2016 and 2017, as part of the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love in San Francisco, included Living on the Earth in the exhibition, and has written academic papers discussing the value and message of this book. I am very grateful for his support of my work, and also very happy to call him a friend.
4. The pages are wonderfully opaque. This really shows my artwork to advantage. Thank you, Fred Lee, the production manager at Echo Point Books & Media, for finding this excellent paper, and even finding one that is sustainably sourced.
5. I went back to the original back cover design, from the first edition, with a list of the subjects covered in the book. This seems more useful to readers than a display of a series of rave reviews on the back cover, as we had on the third and fourth editions. If you are curious about what was written on the back cover of the fourth edition, I have posted it below.
Reader Responses:
Ray Mungo wrote a love letter to Alicia Bay Laurel when Living on the Earth first came out. The radical simplicity and sophistication of her vision, page after page, enchanted us on Total Loss Farm. Luckily, ABL visited and lived with us for a time in the frozen north, the start of lifelong friendships. The children who used the pages as a coloring book have children of their own. LTE had a huge influence of book publishing. They called the oversized paperback “the Alicia Bay Laurel format.” In this pandemic year of loss and climate catastrophe, Alicia’s lyric vision is a consolation for our “over-civilized,” disconnected nation.
Verandah Porche
Poet, teacher, community leader
Guilford, Vermont
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As for reviewing your book, I am positively behind that. It truly is one of my favorites.
I am so happy to hear about the new 50th Anniversary publication of Living On The Earth. I love my yellowed, weathered copy of the original, and am thrilled that readers of my novel will have easy access to your vision and sage advice. I hope you enjoy my book.
Thank you for sharing your light!
Portia Sykes
author of Eat the Moon: A Climatic Love Story to Save the World
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I received the book – it’s lovely!
Greg Castillo
Professor at University of California at Berkeley School of Architecture
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The book arrived and it is marvelous! congratulations!
And thank you for reissuing this for another generation.
It is SUCH a beautiful book. A treasure of beauty and awareness.
Rachel Jamison Webster
Author, Director of Creative Writing at Northwestern University
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Thrilled! Just in time for a New Moon in Pisces seed planting time.
It’s as gorgeous as ever!
Jodi Paloni
Author
Maine Coast Writers Workshops
My favorite page:
I got your book today.. thank you so much.. it’s like a time portal.. the hippie handbook of my youth.. sure doesn’t seem like 50 years ago.. but then it could be 100 years ago.. surprising how little has changed .. but then everything has changed .. I can see why your sales have been good this year.. something for everyone in there..a great and handy lockdown companion.
Mahalo and take care. Aloha,
Diane Burr
Chef and Gardener
Haiku, Maui
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This book got me though the biggest challenges of my life.
Christopher Carnrick
Chef and television personality
Naples, Florida
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There is a better way to live on this sweet planet and we can find it as we dance, sing, make candles, plant gardens. Even if you don’t have a garden you can still learn something in this wonderful book. Over the years I’ve owned 3 copies and given it as a gift more than once.
Patricia Harman
Best-selling novelist, former commune dweller, and former nurse midwife
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This book was a formative book of my youth, published when I was 9. I am so excited to see it is available again! It was a source of enchantment and homesteading fantasies – not just its content, but for the transporting drawings and hand-written text. It is both magical and practical – it’s instructions for simple and sustainable living relevant still. I credit this book with my ongoing interests in earth friendly architecture, healing arts and community systems, and treasure my stained old copy as other books head off to the library sale. This one is staying forever.
Susan Hadden
Architectural Designer
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
https://www.aresolutionllc.com/background
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My most favorite book ever. It’s a road map on how to live naturally and be happy.
Vincent Dembinski
Ingleside, Illinois
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The video looks great, and captures the feeling of your wonderful book. My sister and I adored the 1st edition of Living on the Earth, and you definitely influenced our views on the right way to live. I can’t believe it is now 50 years later!
I love the fact that I read and enjoyed the first edition of Living on the Earth in 1970. And now I’ve had the chance to meet you 50 years later. A real pleasure and honor.
Mark Chickering | Project Development
ECHO POINT BOOKS & MEDIA, LLC (publisher of the 50th anniverary edition of Living on the Earth)
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Hi Alicia,
I just wanted to say that your book arrived today! I have only read through the first few pages, but already it is reawakening my desire and excitement to pare everything I own down to what can fit in a van and set off to explore the country! The illustrations are so beautiful, as are the words. Thank you for creating such a lovely and useful resource. Everything is blooming here in central Missouri and I can’t wait to use the earth’s many spring offerings to try out the recipes and guides from your book. It could not have arrived at a more perfect time.
Samantha Leal
Studied intentional communities at university and planning to visit some!
Columbia, Missouri
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Breezily and refreshingly original, educated a generation in the art of living hip, transmitted by a true hippie pioneer who was THERE at the exact right time to experience it all, the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. A must have for any library.
Stephen
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Fun, beautifully illustrated, and full of fascinating and very useful information. An absolute must have in your home library — for generations to come.
MGS
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A lifetime ago, this beautiful book was bought for me to celebrate the freedom of the seventies! May it continue to inspire a new group of young people with its simplistic yet meaningful message. Live and respect our earth!
Susan Wexler
Retired School Counselor
Worchester, Pennsylvania
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Your book has arrived! It’s simply lovely!
I liked the instructions on sauerkraut, as I had been thinking I might try it. Nut milk.
I’ll be reading it some more.
And I see the new addition to the book!
That has information I have been wanting.
Cherryl Chow
Author
Milpitas, California
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I’m just realizing my need to invest in the future beyond me. So, now my daughter’s little family and I are planning how best to transform the family property into our food source. The first thing that comes to mind is my fairly new copy, (because my old one was 47 years old and quite frankly falling apart), of Living on the Earth. Good place to start.
Elaine Marie Noel
Oceanside, California
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I love Alicia Bay Laurel…her book contributed so much to my life when it came out..I still have my 50-year-old copy, which is basically in tatters because it traveled with me everywhere, and also another newer edition from early in the 2000s. Far cry from my urban industrial home girl vibe, but it resonated so deeply….was a guiding force in me moving to Marin too. So cool that she sent you an inscription for your new copy. And awesome that it is still in print…♡♡♡
Lindsay Forbes
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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This timeless, classic, magical book was my bible to natural living when I was a teen. I had a copy of the original printing of this book, and the wonderful drawings, the ideas, the simplicity and beauty and love for the Earth that Alicia put into it, is a true gift to the world. It touches the human heart, and harkens us back to a way of life that I feel is so needed in the world today!
Rhianne Newlahnd
Artist, Writer, Musician
Sedona, Arizona
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I love this book. This timeless handbook continues to inspire. The whimsical line drawings are masterful in their simplicity.
Leslie Arwin
Medical Doctor and Horsewoman
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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I STILL have my well-used and much-loved copy of Alicia Bay Laurel’s original 1970 edition of LIVING ON THE EARTH on my bookshelf. I finally met Alicia in person in 2000, when she performed for Earth Day in San Diego. She graciously signed my book, which I had been carrying around for thirty years.
Linda Joy Lewis
Vegan Chef and Cookbook Author Earth Angel Kitchen
Jacksonville, Florida
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What a gorgeous book! Love that it’s getting reprinted. Congrats!
Leigh Birdmoon Medeiros
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Thank you so much for creating such a wonderful work of art. I’d wanted this book for many years and am so happy it is finally part of my library!
Eleanor Whiteley
Berlin, Germany
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I bought my first copy of Living On the Earth way back in the early 70s when I was 17 years old. It’s concepts and values influenced me so strongly and shaped my early adult life. My life ended up going in another direction for a time, but 50 years later, I’ve found my way back. The 50th anniversary edition is as relevant today as it was back then. It feels like reuniting with a past lover.
Peter Glatz
Bertha Bus Gypsy Wagon Cuisine
Eclectic fine dining in a school bus!
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Buy this book.
So happy to know that this amazing book is in print. It’s a family treasure.
Amazon Customer April 7, 2021
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I lent my friend my copy of Living on the Earth a year ago and she decided she couldn’t live without it! She just adores it! Not long after getting her own copy, she actually switched to vegan eating and holistic living!
Alicia Bay Laurel Moore Ashlock
Johnstown, Colorado
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I bought a copy of Living on the Earth directly from Alicia’s site after seeing a post you [Beth Owl’s Daughter] made a few years ago about books that you found life-changing. I instantly adored this book! Her drawings are enchanting and the information so important. It was so cool to see it in Melbourne as part of the Revolutions exhibit for being an icon of the back to the earth movement in the ’60s.
Christine Candora-Hickey
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I just wanted to reach out and say that I recently had an amazing thing happen regarding your book Living on the Earth. I found and purchased my first copy almost 20 years ago and quickly fell in love. I would take it with me everytime I would move around, and unfortunately I lost it after a terrible breakup almost 10 years ago, along with most of my possessions. Fast forward to the present, where in conversation someone mentioned how neat it would be to have a handwritten field guide of sorts for simple living/homesteading. I immediately remembered your book, and tried my best to describe it and even googled some of the images to share. 4 days later, a friend that lives almost 2 hours away randomly showed up with a gift. It reminded him of me he said, and then produced a copy of Living on the Earth. I was stunned. He had no way of knowing that I had been discussing this book much less my heartache over losing it. Your guide influenced my life in so many ways as a young adult trying to find my way in a mostly uptight southern Indiana town where I struggled to find a community or peers who shared these interests. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and being such an inspiration in my life. I have built a business doing design/sewing from my home and am actively working on my homestead to this day! Shine bright, beautiful, and thank you for taking the time to read.
Kate Stempf
https://www.gratefulkatedesigns.com/
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This book is a major touchstone for me, having poured over it as a wee child endlessly. Thank you, Alicia Bay Laurel, for having the brilliance to create this monumental manual to life! So happy I finally found a copy several years ago…I read it often. Amazing illustrations! Thank you for showing me how to sew and remake clothes from my earliest years, Alicia! You rock!
E Georges Grinnell
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I still have a copy of that book — I cherished it all the way from the ’70s til now. That book reminded the out-of-the-box wild child me that I was not alone, and that loving trees and playing music and dancing in the sunshine and looking up at the blue sky was the worthiest thing I could possibly do with my life…
Kym Trippsmith
Amazon Queen~Magical Liberation Accomplice
Musical Instigator, Songwriter, Author, Healer, Mama
Sebastopol, California
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Thank you, Alicia. I still have my original first edition book, and was overjoyed to send the 50th Anniversary edition to two of my grown granddaughters.
Seasons Greetings (and Happy Anniversary 
) and to a Bright and Healthy and Joyous New Year
Peace & Love, Sharon Bonner
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I think about how you held on all these years to the best of what our generation imagined, not only in your writing, but also through your music and your art (painting and drawing), giving us purity and a return to nature that now is the only option. I find that prophetic.
[When he met you, Kurt] Vonnegut missed a chance to realize a joyful, loving, hope-filled daughter of his own childrens’ generation.
You make us all proud, dear Alicia. I love your rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine” 
, and you were the first to reimagine Ben Franklin’s Farmers Almanac in our terms – lasting terms!
Dale Murphy
Teacher and author
Sarasota, Florida
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Alicia Bay Laurel, I just showed your book to my youngest daughter. She’s 14. She loved it. Now she wants to collect books on those topics. She was comparing your handwriting to her own. She’s trying out different ways to make letters to give them more of her own style. She’s one of those kids that nearly didn’t get cursive at school, only printing. There was just no way I was going to let them not learn it. Too much actual first-hand history is in cursive. That’s absurd to allow a generation to come of age and cursive is no more readily understandable than ancient Hieroglyphics.
Anyway, my kids, they don’t have a very high opinion of what they consider “hippies” from what they experienced in Hawai’i. Lot of “crazy,” “drainbow.”
I’ve told them it used to be different, but you know, “yeah, right dad…” lol.
My youngest two really enjoyed the way you made your book & what it covers. They thought it was really cool.
I’m glad.
Michael McNally
Michael, I discovered Living on the Earth at 15 or 16 years old just after Allison’s killing [Allison Krause, one of the four students murdered in the Kent State Massacre]. Alicia’s book saved me and remains a cornerstone of my life view today. Your kids know the real thing when they see, read and explore it!
Laurel Krause
Allison Krause’s sister, and founder of the Allison Center for Peace
Co-founder and director at the Kent State Truth Tribunal
Laurel Krause, your story is a powerful affirmation of the healing power of that book (although I did not recognize this while I was creating it!) Come to think of it, I DID notice that whenever I focussed on getting the book done, miraculous offers of help would arrive, and whenever I got distracted from working on it, I felt miserable. Living on the Earth has been a force to be reckoned with from the beginning.
Alicia Bay Laurel
Author/visual artist/singer-songwriter/storyteller/freelance fairy godmother
Dear Alicia, in the turbulent early 1970’s, your book “Living on the Earth” was my shelter in the storm. A blueprint of a world I longed to be part of. Your words and pictures were my “how to” guide when all was lost. Thank you so much 
Laurel Krause
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Alicia, your book was and is one of my favorites for this lifetime.
Susannah Grover
Devotee of the Ineffable Stream
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What a lovely surprise! Basically Books, a treasure trove of a bookstore, serving Hilo, Hawaii, since 1985, is now stocking the newest edition of Living on the Earth!
The 50th Anniversary edition of Living on the Earth is back in stock. Memories of an idealistic youth. (I still have my original copy) We can always choose to make the world a better place. #livingontheearth #aliciabaylaurel #sustainability #lovetheearth #supportlocal
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Growing up, several seminal books helped pave the way to my adult self. One was Alicia Bay Laurel’s “Living on the Earth.” The lifestyle she illustrated was especially enchanting to me, but it was also her simple line drawings that caught and held my attention. I hold her work with Matisse’s or with Jean Cocteau’s for conveying much with only a simple line. Now so many years later, we are Facebook friends, and she is every bit as delightful and wonderful as I imagined she was, all those many years ago.
Terri Van Orman
Executive director at Folklore Village
Former Executive director at Arkansas Craft School
Former Director of Craft Programming at Ozark Folk Center
Acolyte in the temple of Beauty
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Crescent Dragonwagon:
We both have Big Anniversary Reissues coming out this year! Congratulations on Living on the Earth’s return. Oh, how I adored this book when it first came out! I was 16…
Alicia Bay Laurel:
Congratulations on your anniversary editions as well. Your cookbooks are legendary and award-winning. I love your recipes!
Crescent Dragonwagon:
I love your work so much, Alicia Bay Laurel! I am a secondhand bookshop owner and I have a wonderful personal collection of your books. Thank you for all the joy.
Sarah Tooth
Owner, Blackwood Books
Adelaide, Australia
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Today Fiona stayed home from school and we read Living on the Earth together!!! A magical moment!
I was wearing your shirt and she was asking me about it so I pulled out the book and she was fascinated, of course!
Gwendolyn Sanford
Film and television composer, singer-songwriter
Los Angeles, California
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Dearest Alicia, your book is changing my soul. It actually found me. It’s so mystical and the art is absolutely astonishing. It couldn’t have arrived at a more sacred time. Thank you!
I’m so grateful to have your book. My kids and I just moved to West Virginia and your book found us in a little town called Hinton. We were at a festival. It spoke to me. Your art is much like mine. Thank you so much for sharing your gift.
I haven’t really put this book down since it found me. It definitely speaks to me.
Nicole Vidal
Artist
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When I was just a young sprout, your book was so inspirational to me, and it helped me to survive. Thank you.
Simone Pattingale
Victoria, British Columbia
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I can’t ever begin to thank you for all the inspiration you have been to so many and especially to myself with your creative mind, incredible insightful observations, and exquisite truly honestly drawings and paintings.
Margo S. Torelli
Clemson, South Carolina
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I just replaced “Living On The Earth”, which went missing in my college years koff-koff years ago. For half a second I was disappointed that it wasn’t a vintage, antique copy… now I’m happy to see that it’s an ongoing project.
Ken Miller
Intern at Conjectural Technologies
Libation Bearer at Tröegs Independent Brewing
Poltergeist at Abandoned psychiatric hospital
Centralia, Pennsylvania
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Just wanted to make sure you know I received the books promptly, I appreciate you sending them so fast after your travels. 🙂
Have already sold several more copies & I am just so thrilled to have them in the shop! It brings me, and many others great joy! THANK YOU so much again for everything!! ♥️
Hope you are having a great summer! Sending lots of LOVE!
XOXO
Elizabeth Sweigart
The Times Vintage
Greenport, New York
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Hi Alicia,
Wow! What an honor, and how exciting to receive a message from you. I have an original copy of your book that I found at my grandmother’s house (may have been my aunt’s), and I’ve started to gift copies to friends. It felt like a divine gift from God to stumble upon your amazing, one-of-a-kind treasure chest of practical information which doubles as artwork and a conversation piece. Living on the Earth should be a textbook in schools!! I’m looking forward to hanging the posters in my 1853-built home alongside all my antiques and family heirlooms. Nothing store bought/mass made here!!
Chelsea Morrison
Holland, Michigan
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Hey Alicia,
I run a small zine called abracadabra! with Maddy Underwood which orbits around notions of magic in its myriad manifestations.
I have long been deeply mystified and inspired by your originality and creativity for years, and wanted to pass along my admiration for your writing and illustration, and let you know what an influence you’ve had on my own personal creativity over the years. It would be such an honor to feature you in an upcoming issue of our little magazine.
May the powers of manifestation be on your side today.
x
Izzy Fradin
Editor in Chief
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Your book Living on the Earth, and the drawings therein, are very fine memories.
I just moved into living more on this blessed planet. Thank you.
Sunny Gossett Rudolph
Santa Cruz, California
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Hello Alicia,
I’m David, a member of The Bookish Wanderers Book Club. Today, Carmen introduced your timeless book, Living on the Earth, to our community, and the way she spoke of it stopped us in our tracks. She told us this isn’t just a manual, it’s a manifesto, a way of life, and an inspiration that has guided generations.
From recipes for lavender soap and huckleberry jam to lessons in woodcarving, natural healing, gardening, and music, Living on the Earth radiates something rare: the power to nurture both body and spirit. It is more than pages filled with cursive script and drawings, it is a work of art that opens doors to freedom, simplicity, and connection with nature. Carmen explained how your book doesn’t impose rigid rules but invites readers into a way of being that is authentic, beautiful, and enduring.
We trust Carmen. She has a history of guiding us to works that don’t just entertain but transform, and because of her discernment, our admin didn’t simply suggest we take her recommendation seriously—he insisted we reach out to you directly.
As is our tradition, when a book with this kind of legacy enters our circle, we seek to hear from its author. Because when you share your story, your vision, and your journey, our discussions become more than reflections—they become connections.
With Living on the Earth, we know there is more at stake than conversation. There is a chance to carry forward the wisdom, warmth, and artistry that have inspired readers for decades. And when The Bookish Wanderers extend an invitation, it is never casual. It is a door opening to something lasting.
With respect and anticipation,
David
The Bookish Wanderers Book Club
Where stories find their people, and readers find their journey.
Sent to Alicia on September 10, 2025
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Hi Alicia,
I recently revisited Living on the Earth and it felt like opening a window into both history and harmony. What struck me most is how alive the book still feels, even fifty years later. The hand-drawn illustrations, the handwritten text, and the sense of gentle instruction create an experience that is part guide, part meditation. It is as if every page breathes with the same simple joy and reverence for nature that first inspired it.
Reading it today, I was amazed by how much of what you shared in the early 1970s became the foundation for ideas that now define sustainability and mindful living. It feels less like a manual and more like a conversation across generations, reminding us that creativity, simplicity, and spiritual awareness are all connected.
I am curious what it felt like for you to revisit and publish the 50th anniversary edition. Did it bring back memories of the original creative process, or did it feel more like seeing your younger self speak freshly to a new time?
Thank you for creating a book that continues to radiate authenticity and peace. Living on the Earth is more than a guide to self-sufficiency — it is an invitation to live consciously, lovingly, and free.
Warmly,
JUDE JAY
Jakarta, Indonesia
Sent to Alicia on October 28th, 2025
Hello Jude Jay,
Thank you so much for your lovely message about Living on the Earth! I’m so glad to hear that you are appreciating it!
When I worked on publishing the 50th anniversary edition, I felt as if I were collaborating with the younger person I was then, and I was mindful not to override her spirit in this work.
Over the last two years, I have been collaborating with her again. In 1974, at age 25, she started writing and illustrating a graphic novella about a utopian world in the 22nd century, inwhich humans live in telepathic rapport and mutual benefit with the plants.
In 2024, at age 75, I began to work on the book again, again being careful to maintain its originator’s free and natural spirit, while adding some of what I have learned in the decades in between. I will be releasing it soon. The publishing company is a multi-media company I founded called Indigo with Stars, Inc.
The title is Eartha & Aetherias: A Fairy Tale from the 22nd Century.
I am attaching an illustration from the book that depicts an ecovillage in Hawaii, 150 years from now.
I’m just finishing up the covers and the details for self-publishing.
All blessings to you, and thank you for writing to me!
Alicia Bay Laurel
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Published in February 2021 by Echo Point Books & Media of Brattleboro, Vermont. Available in our online store.
“This video looks great, and captures the feeling of your wonderful book. My sister and I adored the 1st edition of Living on the Earth, and you definitely influenced our views on the right way to live. I can’t believe it is now 50 years later!”
Mark Chickering | Project Development
ECHO POINT BOOKS & MEDIA, LLC
Sincere thanks to wonderful Greg Castillo, Professor at the Department of Architecture, College of Environmental Design, at the University of California at Berkeley, who has been doing the first academic research and writing about Living on the Earth.
Yesterday he sent me this message: “I was just procrastinating from writing by doing some internet research on a subscription based site called Independent Voices, a database of alternative publications. I typed “Alicia Bay Laurel” into the search bar and came up with a number of reviews of Living on the Earth that you might not have.”
And here they are – five clippings displaying reviews of Living on the Earth surrounded by some of the countercultural icons among which it was born – Richard Brautigan, Steve Winwood, Baba Ram Dass’ Be Here Now, the East Village Other, How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, Alpha Brain Wave Monitors, and the Pacifica Film Festival.
After Greg posted a link to his essay and I read it, I thanked him for the attention he gave to Living on the Earth in this paper.
He replied, “Although the Whole Earth Catalog gets all the scholarly attention, Living on the Earth conveys much more about counterculture feeling. One is all head-tripping, the other goes straight to heart and soul.“
I said, “ Thank you, Greg. To me, the illustrations convey that blissful feeling of connection – as tribal family and as one with nature and spirit – that most of us did not experience growing up, but acquired in the first 30 seconds of psychedelic voyaging.“
Greg Castillo was the curator of the 2017 exhibition Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia, which included some slightly used copies of Living on the Earth that people could read while lounging in the Relaxation Cube.
Here is the link to buy (for $3) a pdf download of the entire publication, titled “Work,” which is edition #6 of the UC Berkeley Department of Architecture’s publication, Room 1000. Greg’s piece about hippie handbuilt structures begins on page 49 (below).
We’re celebrating the publication of the Kachina Ediciones Spanish translation of Living on the Earth (Viviendo en la Tierra) with high quality organic cotton totebags printed with the cover design.
You can buy one for US$19.95 (plus shipping) here.
You can also buy the book, Viviendo en la Tierra, here.
Alicia Bay Laurel 
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