Possum Living

“A back-to-the-land classic” (Garden & Gun) that will “inspire you to embrace a simpler life” (O, The Oprah Magazine)

In the late seventies, at the age of eighteen and with a seventh-grade education, Dolly Freed wrote Possum Living, about the five years she and her father lived off the land on a half-acre lot outside of Philadelphia. At the time of its publication in 1978, Possum Living became an instant classic, known for its plucky narration and no-nonsense practical advice on how to quit the rat race and live frugally. In her delightful, straightforward, and irreverent style, Freed guides readers on how to buy and maintain a home, dress well, cope with the law, stay healthy, save money, and be lazy, proud, miserly, and honest, all while enjoying leisure and keeping up a middle-class façade.

Thirty years later, Freed's philosophy is world-renowned and Possum Living remains as fascinating, inspirational, and pertinent as it was upon its original publication. This updated edition includes new reflections, insights, and life lessons from an older and wiser Dolly Freed, whose knowledge of how to live like a possum has given her financial security and the confidence to try new ventures.Dolly Freed is my hero….[If] this smart, engaging, funny, and frank manifesto…doesn’t make you want to quit the rat race at least a little bit, then you must be one big, fat rat.—Vice

Compulsively readable… One message comes out loud and clear. As the 18-year-old sage Dolly Freed wrote: ‘I refuse to spend the first 60 years of my life worrying about the last 20.’—New York Times Arts Beat

Compulsively readable… One message comes out loud and clear. As the 18-year-old sage Dolly Freed wrote: ‘I refuse to spend the first 60 years of my life worrying about the last 20.’—New York Times Arts Beat

Dolly is a sharp writer, an autodidact and an 18-year-old of unusual competence and grit…There’s nothing precious about Possum Living: it’s genuine in a way few books are. —Jezebel

…this book will not only make you laugh but might actually inspire you to embrace a simpler life.—O, The Oprah Magazine

Possum Living, a manifesto for living cheaply…is a relevant and sassy manual for the non-consumer lifestyle. —Flavorwire

An elegant memoir.—Philadelphia City Paper

   A paean to self-sufficiency.—Columbia Journal ReviewFollowing her success as an author, Dolly Freed grew up to be a NASA aerospace engineer. She put herself through college after she aced the SATs with an education she received from the public library. She has also been an environmental educator, business owner, and college professor. She lives in Texas with her husband and two children.

Novella Carpenter, author of Farm City and Going Feral,  is an urban farmer and writer based in Oakland, CA. She studied at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, where she worked closely with Michael Pollan and Cynthia Gorney. Her farm, GhostTown, started in 2003, and these days hosts a flock of chickens, honey bees, vegetable beds, and 30 fruit trees. Carpenter teaches writing and urban agriculture at the University of San Francisco.