Editor's note: For four Sundays in September, Karena Tse of Daniel Boone Regional Library will explore a different aspect of this year's One Read title, "North Woods" by Daniel Mason. Columns may include spoilers.

When I consider these artifacts, I ache to imagine their creators’ desperation for their offerings to be found and understood. Each character leaves something different for the record: eyewitness account, wisdom, evidence. But when it comes to the painter William Henry Teale’s letters to the writer Erasmus Nash, the object of communication is simple: love.

“Dear Friend,” he begins. “A note to say I have arrived.”

It is December, William has moved into the house in the woods, and he is alone except in the world of his and Erasmus’ correspondence. He spends all his time painting

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