MOMENTAN AUSVERKAUFT
Über dieses Produkt
Product Identifiers
PublisherUniversity of Minnesota Press
ISBN-101517910951
ISBN-139781517910952
eBay Product ID (ePID)17050087035
Product Key Features
Book TitlePrivate Wilderness : the Journals of Sigurd F. Olson
Number of Pages376 Pages
LanguageEnglish
Publication Year2021
TopicDiaries & Journals, Environmentalists & Naturalists, Life Sciences / Biology
IllustratorYes
GenreScience, Biography & Autobiography, Literary Collections
AuthorSigurd F. Olson
FormatHardcover
Dimensions
Item Height1.3 in
Item Weight23.3 Oz
Item Length9.6 in
Item Width6.6 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceTrade
LCCN2021-058790
Reviews"There is an innocent romance in Olson's essays, a sincere touch of the spiritual." -- The Wall Street Journal "A revelation of Olson's personal diaries and his struggles to balance his life's passion -- writing about nature, about the outdoors -- with his job as a teacher, his responsibilities as a husband and father and his role as a national leader in the growing movement to preserve wild places."-- Duluth News Tribune "The first decades of Sigurd Olson's writing life were filled with frustration and hope, failure and doubt, and finally, publication. The new collection of his journals from this painful and formative time reveals a writer whose life was defined by the struggle between his calling and his many commitments."-- Quetico Superior Wilderness News "While those journal entries were haphazard, often on scraps of paper, usually dated, but sometimes not, they captured [Olson's] thoughts about the wilderness he loved and how he wanted to be the writer who shared those experiences with readers."-- Steve Gardiner "For the voice of a man who spent his life in more familiar wild country, seek out A Private Wilderness. "-- Minnesota Alumni, "A revelation of Olson's personal diaries and his struggles to balance his life's passion -- writing about nature, about the outdoors -- with his job as a teacher, his responsibilities as a husband and father and his role as a national leader in the growing movement to preserve wild places."-- Duluth News Tribune "The first decades of Sigurd Olson's writing life were filled with frustration and hope, failure and doubt, and finally, publication. The new collection of his journals from this painful and formative time reveals a writer whose life was defined by the struggle between his calling and his many commitments."-- Quetico Superior Wilderness News "While those journal entries were haphazard, often on scraps of paper, usually dated, but sometimes not, they captured [Olson's] thoughts about the wilderness he loved and how he wanted to be the writer who shared those experiences with readers."-- Steve Gardiner "For the voice of a man who spent his life in more familiar wild country, seek out A Private Wilderness. "-- Minnesota Alumni
Dewey Edition23
TitleLeadingA
Dewey Decimal508.092 B
Table Of ContentContents Preface Introduction: Wild Calling David Backes A Private Wilderness The Winter of Renewal: January-March 1930 Quiet Desperation: April-December 1930 Reluctant Ecologist: April 1931-January 1932 Unsettled in Ely: September 1932-October 1934 Farewell to Saganaga: October 1934-August 1935 The Dean: September 1935-September 1937 Grandmother's Trout: October 1937-February 1939 We Used to Sing: March 1939-February 1940 Big Brother's Big Idea: February-December 1940 America Out of Doors: January-May 1941 Casualty of War: May 1941-March 1944 Medium Again: April 1944-November 1946 A New Life in Conservation: December 1946-October 1947 The Singing Wilderness: April 1949-February 1954 Epilogue: 1963-1972 Chronology Notes Index
SynopsisYesterday while on my skis, pausing on the high ridge north of Grassy Lake and overlooking twenty miles of wilderness valley to the great range to the southward, for a moment I had the sensation of harmony with the infinite.... For perhaps a full minute I stood on my skis steeping myself in the glory of the scene before me.... Then like an unpleasant memory I was aware of a hostile influence approaching and I began to retrace the way to the matter of fact. It was nothing but the click, click of a chain striking a fender but it was enough to break the spell. It drew closer and closer until the air was filled with the unpleasant clangor of metal upon metal. I looked up in disgust but the truck was hidden by the trees. It grew fainter and fainter and at last was lost entirely. I stayed for a moment to try and recapture what I had lost but although I did for a brief moment, it was impossible to regain the complete beauty of the first. I pushed on my ski sticks and slid down the trail toward the lake. Book jacket., The personal diaries of one of America's best-loved naturalists, revealing his difficult and inspiring path to finding his voice and becoming a writer Few writers are as renowned for their eloquence about the natural world, its power and fragility, as Sigurd F. Olson (1899-1982). Before he could give expression to The Singing Wilderness , however, he had to find his own voice. It is this struggle, the painstaking and often simply painful process of becoming the writer and conservationist now familiar to us, that Olson documented in the journal entries gathered here. Written mostly during the years from 1930 to 1941, Olson's journals describe the dreams and frustrations of an aspiring writer honing his skills, pursuing recognition, and facing doubt while following the academic career that allowed him to live and work even as it consumed so much of his time. But even as he speaks with immediacy and intensity about the conditions of his apprenticeship, Olson can be seen developing the singular way of observing and depicting the natural world that would bring him fame--and also, more significantly, alert others to the urgent need to understand and protect that world. Author of Olson's definitive biography, editor David Backes brings a deep knowledge of the writer to these journals, providing critical context, commentary, and insights along the way. When Olson wrote, in the spring of 1941, "What I am afraid of now is that the world will blow up just as I am getting it organized to suit me," he could hardly have known how right he would prove to be. It is propitious that at our present moment, when the world seems once more balanced on the precipice, we have the words of Sigurd F. Olson to remind us of what matters--and of the hard work and the wonder that such a reckoning requires.
LC Classification NumberQH31.O47A3 2021
