Aldo Leopold's Odyssey: Rediscovering the Author of A Sand County Almanac [Hardcover]

Julianne Lutz Newton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1597260452 | ISBN-13: 978-1597260459 | Publication Date: November 1, 2006 | Edition: 1

A household icon of the environmental movement, Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) may be the most quoted conservationist in history. A Sand County Almanac has sold millions of copies and his lyrical writings are venerated for their perceptions about land and how people might live in concert with the whole community of life.



But who is the man behind the words? How did he arrive at his profound and poetic insights, inspiring generations of environmentalists? Building on past scholarship and a fresh study of Leopold's unpublished archival materials, Julianne Lutz Newton retraces the intellectual journey that generated such passion and intelligence.



Aldo Leopold's Odyssey illuminates his lifelong quest for answers to a fundamental issue: how can people live prosperously on the land and keep it healthy, too? Leopold's journey took him from Iowa to Yale to the Southwest to Wisconsin, with fascinating stops along the way to probe the causes of early land settlement failures, contribute to the emerging science of ecology, and craft a new vision for land use.



More than a biography, this articulate volume is a guide to one man's intellectual growth, and an inspirational resource for anyone pondering the relationships between people and the land.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Conservationist Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) is revered for his gorgeous prose, deep appreciation for the beauty and "rightness" of the living world, and profound moral sense of how we should live on the land. But the story of how this Yale-educated midwesterner become one of the nation's first professional foresters and a groundbreaking environmental educator, and developed his commonsensical "land ethic," has not been fully studied until now. Ecologist Newton offers not a biography but, rather, an exacting chronicle of Leopold's intellectual and professional odyssey. Leopold conceived of the land as "a fountain of energy" flowing through soil (soil conversation was a primary mission), plants, waterways, animals (Leopold was an avid hunter and the nation's leading wildlife expert), and humans. He knew that to sustain "land health" we needed to develop an "ecological conscience" and fend off the "industrial juggernaut." Newton's compelling and elucidating close reading of Leopold's keystone works greatly enhances our understanding of his scientific rigor, philosophical valor, and abiding sense of wonder. If only we would take his conservation ethic to heart. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Though Julianne Lutz Newton''s new book about Aldo Leopold is described as a biography, it is much more than that...Aldo Leopold''s Odyssey fits Leopold into the larger tradition of American environmentalism, and shows him to be an essential part of its development... an invaluable look into Leopold''s personal and professional life." 

(Matt Low Isle )

“In Aldo Leopold’s Odyssey, her new study of Leopold’s intellectual evolution, Julianne Lutz Newton makes us feel the loss of what might have followed A Sand County Almanac by showing us in authoritative detail what led up to it. The result is a biography of ideas, a map of how far Leopold had moved between 1909…and his death…”

(The New York Times Book Review )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 504 pages
• Publisher: Island Press; 1 edition (November 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597260452
• ISBN-13: 978-1597260459
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #651,735 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A surprising, penetrating, lyrical study, November 5, 2006

By 

Will Wander (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aldo Leopold's Odyssey: Rediscovering the Author of A Sand County Almanac (Hardcover)

Readers who think they know Leopold, whether from his classic A Sand County Almanac or from earlier writings about him, are in for a real surprise. We see here, far better than ever before, the science underlying Leopold's conservation thought; he was at the forefront of ecology, not merely a consumer of it. Even more, we see how Leopold moved step by step to the (for him) painful realization that true conservation was not possible without significant cultural change, which in turn required committed conservationists to step up and challenge dominant values and institutions. Newton shows clearly that it was Leopold's idea of land health, not his land ethic, that stood at the center of his mature conservation thought. She shows how land health, once carefully crafted, transformed his thinking on nearly every aspect of conservation. And she explains vividly-- far better than any other scholar--the precise meanings that Leopold attached to his famous ethical admonition to preserve the land's "integrity, stability, and beauty." Why did Leopold resist the federal conservation programs of the New Deal Era? How did he redefine wilderness over the final decade of his life and reshape his chief reasons for protecting it? What did he view as the main goals of wildlife management, and why did he turn against many basic assumptions in his classic book Game Management? What kind of startlingly new ecology text did he have in works when he died? These and other questions are answered for the first time, in this major work that is brimming with new information and new interpretations. The most sobering realization one has, though, upon finishing this splendid book, is that today's conservation cause might cite Leopold often but hardly at all understands who he was and what he thought. This is not just the best book we have on Leopold, it might well be the best book we've had on any conservation intellect.