Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage
6 total works
Sigurd F. Olson (1899-1982) was one of the greatest environmentalists of the twentieth century. A conservation activist and popular writer, Olson introduced a generation of readers to the importance of wilderness. He served as president of the Wilderness Society and the National Parks Association and as a consultant to the federal government on wilderness preservation and ecological problems. He earned many honors, including the highest possible from the Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, and Izaak Walton League.
Olson is perhaps best known, though, for his many books that express the wonder, awe, and peace he found in the wilderness, including the nature classics The Singing Wilderness, Listening Point, and Reflections from the North Country. While these books have greatly influenced subsequent environmentalist movements and writers such as Annie Dillard and Barry Lopez, a major portion of Olson’s wilderness writing-much of it originating as speeches-has been relatively inaccessible, scattered in a number of magazines and obscure books over a period of more than fifty years, or never published at all.
The Meaning of Wilderness gathers together the most important of Sigurd Olson’s articles and speeches, making them available for the first time. The book also contains an introduction and chapter-by-chapter commentary by Olson’s authorized biographer, David Backes, that help the reader discover the various facets of Olson’s wilderness philosophy and their development over time. A lively look at the evolution of one of environmentalism’s greatest figures, The Meaning of Wilderness will be essential reading for Olson fans, historians, and outdoors people around the country.
Olson’s inspirational life story, told in his own words, now available in paperback.
Sigurd Olson’s love affair with the wilderness began in a stream near his house in Wisconsin-he caught his first trout there with a tamarack wand, black thread, and a grasshopper as bait. Open Horizons is his autobiography, and in it he recounts a life lived on and for the land, from the wonder of boyhood fishing expeditions to decades-long conservation battles.
Writing always with the sensitive, lyric prose that characterizes his works, Olson recalls his pioneering youth on a remote Wisconsin farm, his summers as a wilderness canoe guide, and his thousands of miles of travel through the wilds of this country and Canada. “Open Horizons is the story of the unknowns I have discovered, and gone through,” he writes. While telling his story, Olson makes a compelling case for preserving the wilderness. He puts forth his own life as an example of how nature can have a spiritual effect on the human soul, and proposes diligence on behalf of those who fight to conserve our forests, wetlands, and dunes. “If we can move into an open horizon where we can live in our modern world with ancient dreams that have always stirred us, then our work will have been done.” ISBN 0-8166-3037-2 Paper $14.95256 pages 12 line drawings 5 1/2 x 8 1/4 SeptemberFesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage Book SeriesTranslation inquiries: University of Minnesota Press
