Compass Points: How I Lived

Compass Points: How I Lived is a memoir by Edward Hoagland, an American novelist, travel writer, and essayist known for his nature writings. The memoir details Hoagland's experiences with blindness, which he first encountered in middle age due to cataracts. Although an operation temporarily corrected the condition, his vision impairment recurred later in life, a struggle he also documented in his novel In the Country of the Blind. Hoagland's work often drew comparisons to nature writers like Henry David Thoreau and John Muir. He also wrote about personal challenges, including a lifelong speech impediment.12