appleseed hollow is a book describing the author's experience of living on a small farm at the eastern end of lancaster county, pennsylvania, from 1958 to 1974. the farm is a non-commercial thirty-acre slice of landscape. the owner is an artist who invites him to plant his roots in the soil of her demesne. the various happenings during the sixteen-year period are dominated by the large number of animals, domesticated and wild, who come to share this hilly acreage. in the background there are always the seasons, the weather, and the land itself with its vegetation, topography, the five buildings, especially the old barn and the two houses (all of which date back to the middle of the 18th century) in which the author and owner live with their animals. finally, there are people too, friends, neighbors, and tenants who are linked, in one way or another, to the affairs on the farm. the author goes to the country as a born and bred urbanite. he has become too enmeshed in a tangle of social attachment and obligations and therefore welcomes the change, the fresh air, the open spaces and the mostly silent but affectionate fellowship of the animals. the personal relationship between the author, who is also a much published poet, and the owner, who is also a much exhibited painter, is relegated to a minor key, for the main interest of this book, is what goes on between the people and the animals, primarily dogs and cats. the book is written in the style of a journal, which gives it a tone of immediacy. its moving details turn the hollow and its environs into a self-contained world, a world of ceaseless change and activity in which two human beings express their profound respect for the land they live on by their every action and by their loving care and concern for the animals who share it with them.