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David and Louise Proulx, whose t<strong>in</strong>y black-and-white television had been stolen by Knight, suffered at<br />
least fifty break-<strong>in</strong>s over <strong>the</strong> decades, and <strong>the</strong>y described <strong>the</strong> strange psychological effects of <strong>the</strong> crimes—at<br />
first, <strong>the</strong>y were conv<strong>in</strong>ced it was one of <strong>the</strong>ir own children who was guilty; <strong>the</strong>n <strong>the</strong>y seriously wondered if<br />
<strong>the</strong>y had begun to lose <strong>the</strong>ir m<strong>in</strong>ds. Pete Cogswell, whose size thirty-eight Lands’ End jeans and brown<br />
lea<strong>the</strong>r belt were stolen, and his wife, Lillie Cogswell, who worked <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Texas crim<strong>in</strong>al justice system for<br />
more than thirty years, spoke with me at length, describ<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> details of Knight’s confound<strong>in</strong>g break-<strong>in</strong>s<br />
and speculat<strong>in</strong>g on what might be an appropriate punishment for him. Donna and T. J. Bolduc shared with<br />
me <strong>the</strong>ir game-camera photos of Knight, as well as <strong>the</strong>ir Sk<strong>in</strong>nygirl margarita mix joke.<br />
Garry Hollands, one of <strong>the</strong> first people to hang a bag on his cab<strong>in</strong>’s door with offer<strong>in</strong>gs for <strong>the</strong> hermit,<br />
spoke of all <strong>the</strong> books he’d lost, and how he’d balanced a nearly <strong>in</strong>visible bit of fish<strong>in</strong>g l<strong>in</strong>e over his door<br />
that would be dislodged when someone opened it, so he could tell when he’d been burglarized. Debbie<br />
Baker described how fearful her young children were of <strong>the</strong> hermit—it was her family that nicknamed him<br />
<strong>the</strong> Hungry Man. Neal Patterson recounted his fourteen nights wait<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> his cab<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> dark, with a gun,<br />
try<strong>in</strong>g to catch <strong>the</strong> hermit.<br />
Sergeant Terry Hughes spent hours tell<strong>in</strong>g me about his hermit obsession, and one even<strong>in</strong>g he took me<br />
around <strong>in</strong> his pickup truck to check his traps, <strong>the</strong>n brought me to his clubhouse and provided <strong>in</strong>structions as<br />
I sk<strong>in</strong>ned my first-ever muskrat. State Trooper Diane Vance met me after Knight’s court hear<strong>in</strong>g and spoke<br />
with me several times over <strong>the</strong> phone. Both <strong>the</strong> district attorney, Maeghan Maloney, and Knight’s attorney,<br />
Walter McKee, granted me <strong>in</strong>terviews. No one <strong>in</strong> Knight’s family spoke with me, but dozens of people <strong>in</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> Albion community did, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g several of Knight’s former teachers and classmates, as well as a few<br />
longtime friends of <strong>the</strong> Knight family.<br />
Dur<strong>in</strong>g each trip to Ma<strong>in</strong>e, I visited Knight’s camp. It was never easy to f<strong>in</strong>d. <strong>The</strong>re is no way to overstate<br />
how thick and confus<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> Jarsey is, or <strong>the</strong> astonishment provoked, every time, by stepp<strong>in</strong>g from <strong>the</strong> dense<br />
forest <strong>in</strong>to <strong>the</strong> site.<br />
To attempt to comprehend more of Knight’s m<strong>in</strong>d-set, I had lengthy telephone conversations and e-mail<br />
chats with several psychologists and autism experts, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g Simon Baron-Cohen of Cambridge<br />
University; Ca<strong>the</strong>r<strong>in</strong>e Benoist, who runs a cl<strong>in</strong>ical practice near Chicago; Peter Deri, <strong>in</strong> private practice <strong>in</strong><br />
New York; Stephen M. Edelson of <strong>the</strong> Autism Research Institute, <strong>in</strong> San Diego; Thomas W. Frazier of <strong>the</strong><br />
Center for Autism at <strong>the</strong> Cleveland Cl<strong>in</strong>ic; Jill Hooley of Harvard University; and Ca<strong>the</strong>r<strong>in</strong>e Lord of Weill<br />
Cornell Medic<strong>in</strong>e. Stephen M. Prescott, president of <strong>the</strong> Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, spoke<br />
with me about <strong>the</strong> nature of communicable diseases and how it was possible that Knight had never gotten<br />
sick.<br />
In order to ga<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>sight <strong>in</strong>to <strong>the</strong> ordeals of forced isolation, I corresponded extensively with John<br />
Catanzarite, an <strong>in</strong>mate <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> California prison system who spent almost fourteen years locked <strong>in</strong> solitary<br />
conf<strong>in</strong>ement. I also read a dozen o<strong>the</strong>r accounts from solitary prisoners.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re’s an ocean of hermit literature; I began my read<strong>in</strong>g on one shore, with Lao-tzu’s Tao Te Ch<strong>in</strong>g (I<br />
recommend <strong>the</strong> Red P<strong>in</strong>e translation), and started swimm<strong>in</strong>g from <strong>the</strong>re. Excellent explorations of <strong>the</strong><br />
history and motivations of hermits <strong>in</strong>clude Solitude by Anthony Storr, A Pelican <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Wilderness by<br />
Isabel Colegate, Hermits by Peter France, and Solitude by Philip Koch.<br />
Perceptive and valuable personal explorations of time alone <strong>in</strong>clude A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland,<br />
Party of One by Anneli Rufus, Migrations to Solitude by Sue Halpern, Journal of a Solitude by May<br />
Sarton, <strong>The</strong> Po<strong>in</strong>t of Vanish<strong>in</strong>g by Howard Axelrod, Solitude by Robert Kull, Pilgrim at T<strong>in</strong>ker Creek by