The Book of Hermits

Hermits have thrived in every major historical era, geography, culture, and society - from antiquity to the present, East and West, in deserts, forests, and mountains, depicted in art, literature, and lore. What are their motives? Religious, spiritual, philosophical? Ethical, aesthetic, psychological? From a love of wilderness to a desire for the anonymity of life as a "hermit in the city." From an inkling about the universe to a desire for radical simplicity. The historical hermits have reflect