Jane Brox is the author of five award-winning non-fiction books.
Latest by this author
Solitary confinement began as a Quaker-inspired experiment in silence and moral reform in early American prisons, but over time its redemptive intent gave way to harsh, isolating punishment that remains in use today.
More about this author
Jane Brox’s fifth book, Silence, was published in January 2019 and was selected as an Editors’ Choice by the New York Times Book Review. It received the 2020 Maine Literary Award for Nonfiction. Her previous book, Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light, was named one of the top ten nonfiction books of 2010 by Time magazine. She is also the author of Clearing Land: Legacies of the American Farm; Five Thousand Days Like This One, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in nonfiction; and Here and Nowhere Else, which won the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award. She lives in Brunswick, Maine.
External
‘In the Merrimack Valley’ Review: Of Soil and Soul
Co-authors: Danny Heitman | Wall Street Journal | April | 2025
Brox writes about her home: the land where her family has long grown nourishing crops. The origin of the trilogy came about when she realized how much of the history of the land was a mystery, even to her. Her investigation into the entwined history of her family and the farm that has nourished them yields fascinating insights into more that simply a plot of land.
The New Yorker | June | 2019
Brox writes a personal essay reflecting on her father’s death and the significance of the objects he left behind.
April | 2019
Brox meditates on silence and how its meaning can change over time, and over the course of a life.
Co-authors: Nicholas Lezard | The Guardian | March | 2012
Brox writes eloquently about the history and implications of artificial light.
Publications by this author
A Social History of One of the Least Understood Elements of Our Lives
Mariner Press | January | 2019
Jane Brox explores the social functions of silence, from its spiritual purpose in monasteries to its use as punishment prisons, Brox traces its history and significance in human life.
The Evolution of Artificial Light
Houghton Mifflin | January | 2010
Brox illuminates the human quest to create artificial light, and how it has influenced the planet and our lives.
For centuries crude lamps and tallow candles meant most people rose and lay down with the sun. In the nineteenth century, gas streetlights opened up the evening hours to leisure. Soon afterwards, electric light lit up our lives with apparent effortlessness, changing the ways we live and sleep and the world’s ecosystems.Legacies of the American Farm
North Point Press | September | 2025
This book begins with her family’s farm in Massachussets and broadens its scope to the meaning of cleared land in general, touching on other iconic cleared land in the United States.
An American Family History
Beacon Press | April | 2000
In the wake of her father’s death, Jane Brox searches for her family’s story, which leads her to New England's Merrimack Valley, its farmers, and the immigrant workers caught up in the industrial textile age.
Late Seasons of a Farm and its Family
Beacon Press | January | 1995
In this tribute to her family’s farm in the Merrimack Valley, Brox describes in loving detail daily life on a working farm as well as the complexity and intimacy of family.
Media by this author
Interview | October | 2021
Authors Jane Brox and Pamela Petro have a conversation about their books, which connection to land.
Interview | March | 2019
Jane Brox, hosted by the Free Library of Philadelphia, discusses her book Silence.
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