PDA

View Full Version : Please Recommend Some Biographies/Autobiographies



Regulus
11-20-2010, 04:56
What are your must-read biographies with a modern, environmental slant?

Cabin Fever
11-20-2010, 10:00
Anything by John Muir, Edward Abbey or John Muir

Cabin Fever
11-20-2010, 10:00
Anything by John Muir, Edward Abbey or John Muir

I meant Rachel Carson at the end.

emerald
11-20-2010, 15:42
It's not a biography, but rather a history of man's relationship with wild places and how it has changed over time. The more prominent figures contributing to this transformation are introduced along with their specific contributions.

It may serve as a better starting point than a list of biographies by introducing contributors in their historical context. When you complete the book, you will have a list and a better understanding of the relative importance of these individuals and their contributions.

Luddite
11-20-2010, 15:58
Confessions of an Eco-Warrior by Dave Foreman

Epitaph For A Desert Anarchist: The Life And Legacy Of Edward Abbey by James Bishop

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold (Not a biography, but a great book)

Wise Old Owl
11-20-2010, 17:43
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain

Recently or about to be released is the Autobiography - held back by his will.

Luddite
11-20-2010, 17:59
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain

Recently or about to be released is the Autobiography - held back by his will.

That'll be a good read.

Did you the picture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Twain_in_Tesla's_Lab.jpg) of him in Tesla's lab. Thats awesome.

Sierra Echo
11-20-2010, 17:59
Billy Bryson! LMAO
sorry, i couldnt resist!

emerald
11-20-2010, 18:21
Click on Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/rachel_carson/13869) to read a short piece by Lisa Budwig and for additional links.

I believe I know where to find an online image of Rachel on Hawk Mountain Sanctuary's North Lookout and I will post a link to it if memory serves.

Hawk Mountain Sanctuary's visitors center is approximately 1 mile from the A.T. at Eckville via Hawk Mountain Road. Entrance to the visitors center is free and much can be learned there in an hour or less. Life-sized images of both Rachel Carson and Rosalie Edge welcome visitors. Mounts of all of the raptors observable as they migrate through Kittatinny Ridge IBA are displayed. A modest trail fee applies for those who wish to hike on HMS trails.

emerald
11-20-2010, 18:42
For a short article about a lesser known but important figure, click on Rosalie Barrow Edge (http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/rosalie_barrow_edge/13872) to access another DEP page. A recent book about her is entitled Rosalie Edge, Hawk of Mercy (http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/rosalie_edge/1/0) by Dyana Z. Furmansky.

Regulus
11-20-2010, 21:47
Thanks for your suggestions, everyone. I'm going to take Emerald's advice and read the book by Roderick Nash first.

Luddite
11-20-2010, 21:50
Thanks for your suggestions, everyone. I'm going to take Emerald's advice and read the book by Roderick Nash first.

Gotta read a book called Desert Solitaire.

http://www.amazon.com/Desert-Solitaire-Wilderness-Edward-Abbey/dp/0345326490

READ IT!

emerald
11-20-2010, 21:58
I'm going to take Emerald's advice and read the book by Roderick Nash first.

Come back when you are done with it and you can help me set a few crooked things straight.

Someone needs to add some other links to this thread too. Good links on at least the transcendentalists, Muir, Roosevelt, Pinchot, Mather and Leopold are needed to complete it.

Regulus
11-20-2010, 22:39
Gotta read a book called Desert Solitaire.

http://www.amazon.com/Desert-Solitaire-Wilderness-Edward-Abbey/dp/0345326490

READ IT!

I did. Good book.

RedneckRye
11-21-2010, 10:09
Grizzly Years by Doug Peacock

weary
11-21-2010, 10:45
The outdoor account that I've enjoyed the most recently is Edwin Way Teale's "A Naturalist Buys an Old Farm," which is his account of 15 years of living on a small farm in a revolutionary War era house in northern Connecticut. It's been my bedtime reading in recent days.

Teale is best known for his four volume series tracing the seasons across America. But his 17 volumes of nature books, and the six volumes he edited of the works of other nature writers -- Thoreau, Fabre, Audubon and Muir -- made him by far the best selling naturalist of the 20th century.

Many of his books are being reprinted as quality paperbacks as the "Edwin Way Teale Library of Nature Classics" by Dodd Mead & Company.

I enjoyed but was not terribly enthusiastic about his four seasonal books. However, aside from cutesy names for every nook and cranny of his farm, his account of small town and rural life in the 1960s is superb. He was not a farmer, but a writer and observer. His farm returned to it's wild roots, as did the wild animals and birds. He describes them well.

Living as I do on midcoast Maine his descriptions of winters in Connecticut 50 years ago made me especially aware of the changes that are occurring in the world's climate. His 1960 Connecticut seasons are scarily similar to 2010 midcoast Maine seasons, a half century later and 200 miles further north.

Weary

Luddite
11-27-2010, 17:08
Grizzly Years by Doug Peacock

+1

And Walking it off.

Forgot to mention a book by John Francis called Planetwalk.