Robert E. Harrill, called the "Fort Fisher Hermit," was a popular hermit near Wilmington, North Carolina, from 1955-1972, receiving and entertaining visitors in the abandoned sea-side military bunker that he called home. He is the subject of several books and a documentary film. Two Web sites are: "Fort Fisher Hermit" at http://www.carolinabeach.com/history/memory/hermit.htm and "The Hermit Story" at http://www.hearlshill.freeservers.com/the_hermit_story.htm. There is a collection of Harrill's manuscripts at the Library of East Carolina University: http://www.lib.ecu.edu/SpclColl/ead/vault/manuscripts/0428.html
An 1829 pamphlet chronicling the life of a black fugitive slave who escaped the U.S. South to New England, where he became a hermit, is reproduced by the Libraries of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The Web site is: http://docsouth.unc.edu/robert/robert.html.
An essay titled The Eccentric Hermit-Bishop: Bede, Cuthbert, and Farne Island, published in the 1999 proceedings of the Illinois Medieval Association, can be found at http://www.luc.edu/publications/medieval/vol16/aggeler.html
The Catholic Archdiocese of La Cross (Wisconsin, USA) has translated into English the statutes governing hermits in France promulgated by the Canonical Committee of Religious under the Bishops of France. The English translation dates from 1998 and is entitled Guidebook on Eremetic Life. Web site is: http://www.dioceseoflacrosse.com/ministry_resources/vocations/book/page9.asp
Read a full chapter from The Hermits and Anchorites of England by Mary Rotha Clay at Matrix, a Web-based resource on the history of women in the Middle Ages. Chapter 7 is entitled "Anchorites in Church and Cloister" and is located in the Commentaria section of Matrix at http://matrix.bc.edu/commentaria/clay01.html. The Web site of Matrix is: http://matrix.bc.edu/
December 2001 article from the Christian Science Monitor about a variety of Christian hermits in the USA. One point made is that several living in urban areas are diligently saving money for rural isolation some day. Web page: http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1206/p15s1-lire.html