Henry David Thoreau lived in a small cabin on the shore of Walden Pond for two years and two months. Harlan Hubbard and his wife Anna lived in a simple home they built themselves on the shore of the Ohio River in Kentucky for over forty years. They lived without electricity or indoor plumbing, and grew, fished or foraged for their own food. Harlan wrote several books based on his journals including, perhaps most notably, Payne Hollow Journal. He was a friend of ecologist Wendell Berry who wrote a biography of Harlan (Harlan Hubbard: Life and Work) that included this introduction:

Harlan Hubbard had a wild, wild soul. That was his essential self. Everything -- his art, his writing, all his work, his way of life -- flowed from this source. By wild I mean fresh, bright, gentle, subtle, alert, beautiful, and free. Harlan had the soul of a shy wild bird, of a wildflower growing in the woods, of the leaves of a tree blowing softly in the wind. I also mean alone, self-contained, apart from the world.

Some excerpts from Harlan’s journals (published as Payne Hollow Journal):

I yearn for the wild, I lean toward its absolute solitude. . . Today as I swam in the river I looked up with a wild duck's eye into the trees waving as the wind rushed through them, lightly rattling the cottonwood leaves. . . Suddenly, I felt alone on the earth, as I do when lying on the damp ground in spring to see closely the bloodroot raising its leaf sheath through the mold. These moments are not rare. I can summon them when I feel the need to retire into the wilderness. For this is my wilderness, untouched by man, of infinite grace and harmony.

The danger is to see and hear with the intellect instead of the senses, or rather with the intellect alone, instead of the intellect through the senses. Nothing is more perishable than our relations with the earth. It must be constantly renewed. Come in a house, think of something else, become absorbed in some work – it is gone. This communion is only possible when the mind is free. The body may be doing whatever else it wants to do. 
          - January 6, 1963

To rise in the frosty morning at the point of daybreak, climb the hill and cut wood, while the sky lightens above the soaring trees; to eat this wholesome, sweet food: to use my body, hands and mind at the endless work I have to do; to read by the firelight, to sleep warm and snug; all this shared and enjoyed by my loving partner – what manner of a man originated this idea of a happier life beyond death?
      - April, 11, 1955

The Akers family walked down the hill yesterday PM for a surprise visit. Gene has long felt a desire to “live like we do,” without modern conveniences on the river, where he could build his own house, burn wood, raise a garden, fish, etc. I don’t know what is behind this longing, or how deep it goes. If for moral or economic reasons, such a life would never satisfy him. Love is the only motivation that will carry through –- love of the earth, rain and snow, wood fires, of your hands in the earth, of the promise of tender plants, recognition and love of goodness that surrounds us.
- March 27, 1963

Instead of dashing through the day, completing one activity as quickly as possible so as to get at something else, it would be better to savor each part of the day as if this were your last day. Get as much out of the present moment as possible, from daybreak to bedtime. Even sleeping should be done well, even if one must wake up now and then to enjoy the night. When you eat, give each dish its full importance and extract its individual flavor…. Most everything we do deserves reverence, and a special setting. But one must live naturally, without pretense.
- Harlan Hubbard, Payne Hollow Journal

I had no theories to prove. I merely wanted to try living by my own hands, independent as far as possible from a system of division of labor in which the participant loses most of the pleasure of making and growing things for himself. I wanted to bring in my own fuel and smell its sweet smell as it burned in the hearth I had made. I wanted to grow my own food, catch it in the river, or forage after it. In short, I wanted to do as much as I could for myself, because I had already realized from partial experience the inexpressible joy of so doing.
- Harlan Hubbard, Shantyboat, A River Way Of Life

A documentary of Harlan’s life:

The Life Of Harlan Hubbard

. . .

There is something special about a life built around steadfast conviction, particular a conviction to achieve a harmony with one’s concept of beauty, and that involves sacrifice in pursuit of that conviction.

Harlan and his wife Anna exemplified that steadfast devotion. The purity and beauty of their purpose is inspiring, as was their consistent devotion to that vision for forty-five years.