This book has literally been sitting on my bookshelves for over 50 years. It was published in 1963. I expect that I found it in a bookstore in the late 1960s when the Department of State assigned me to Finnish language training (I puzzled over the two 'n's in Finnish until I realized that the training was meant to prepare me for an assignment in Helsinki). I don't remember what attracted me - perhaps it was the word "runes" which sounded Scandinavian to me. I might have noticed that the book began and ended with quotes from the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. I might have noticed in the index a chapter about the Finnish sauna.
Runes of the North is a book of essays and each essay stands alone. The first half of the book is about living in the wilderness adjacent to the boundary waters between Minnesota and Canada, known as Quetico Superior. The stories remind me of how Thoreau experienced Walden Pond. While occasionally Olson describes sharing his adventures with his son or other friends, the book is really about his relationship to the waters, marshes and forests around him. The second half of the book describes his various adventures in the Canadian far north and Alaska. Olson, an experienced canoe and wilderness guide, undertook some incredibly risky adventures.
Olson's writing style is easy to like as he mixes in personal observation, local myths and the history of the early explorers. Many essays are about simple things like digging a well, building a sauna, tracking a wounded buck. His love and understanding of his environment shines through every essay. Later you find him canoeing a river so remote that there are no reliable accounts of how challenging the rapids might be. I'm sorry I took so long to discover the world he writes about and wish to experience it myself.
In Runes of the North Sigurd F. Olson explores the haunting appeal of the wilderness. He recounts how the legends of the northern vastness of Canada and Alaska have influenced him, weaving the tales and myths with his own stories and experiences as an explorer, writer, grandfather, and biologist. Now available in paperback for the first time, Runes of the North is a mystical and reflective guide to the northern wilderness written with a oneness and communion with nature that is unique to Olson's pen. It is a work filled with beauty, wisdom, and renewal.
On the surface, this is the story of a horrific wildfire that torched most of Ft. McMurray, a small city in the boreal forest of northern Alberta. The city exists because the dominant industry is the extraction of bitumen that can be turned into synthetic crude oil and other petroleum based products. The fire was so intense that it created its own weather system of destructive winds and lightning storms.
Vaillant does a masterful job of telling the story of how firefighters along with the residents and local authorities of Ft. McMurray coped with the fire emergency. The fire itself is the main character, presented as a breathing entity searching for fuel.
The real story is what this fire tells us about the causes and consequences of climate change. I split my time between Tucson, Arizona and Durango, Colorado. Both places are a long way from Ft. McMurray but I have witnessed destructive forest fires in both places. The American Southwest is in a long-term drought situation and more fires are inevitable. Given the warming climate, we can anticipate fires of increasing severity and destructiveness, ones that can create their own weather.
***AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER*** *Longlisted for the BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION*
'Astounding on every page. John Vaillant is one of the great poetic chroniclers of the natural world' David Wallace-Wells
'No book feels timelier than John Vaillant's Fire Weather . . . an adrenaline-soaked nightmare that is impossible to put down' Cal Flyn, The Times
A gripping account of this century's most intense urban fire, and a panoramic exploration of the rapidly changing relationship between humanity and fire's fierce energy.
In May 2016, Fort McMurray, Alberta, the hub of Canada's oil industry, was overrun by wildfire. The multi-billion-dollar disaster turned…
Living in the American West for the last three decades, I have long been concerned about preserving the beauty and sustainability of the land where I hike, bike, bird watch, and ski. Fires and drought, made worse by climate change, are major threats. Another significant threat comes from political leaders who would privatize the public lands of the West. The stated motives are seductive. Proponents argue that we need the oil, gas and minerals that could be extracted from the land. We need, they say, more space for housing as our population grows.
I knew virtually nothing about Bernard and Avis DeVoto before reading this book. They had important enemies including Pat McCarran of Nevada and Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin. I knew a great deal about McCarthy and the link between him and our current president through the lawyer Roy Cohn. All I knew about MCCarran is that they took his name off the Las Vegas international airport because of his legacy aof racism and ant-semitism.
I learned a great deal about how the DeVotos built a grassroots coalition to save treasures like Glacier National Park and the Dinosaur National Monument. What makes the book so relevant to our time is that the battle they fought is still being fought today as the current administration again seeks to privatize public land.
A pleasant surprise was learning that Bernard and Avis helped launch the career of Julia Child who, through her books and television shows, introduced America to the art of French cooking. Julia was married to a Foreign Service Officer so we considered her one of us - those who have served our country overseas.
Winner of the High Plains Book Award | Best Book of the Year - Outdoor Writers Association of America
“A brilliant rendering of what 'the open space of democracy' must be if we are to survive its present state of erosion.” –Terry Tempest Williams
The untold and “energetic” history of the extraordinary couple who rescued national parks from McCarthyism—and inspired a future of conservation (Wall Street Journal)
In late-1940s America, few writers commanded attention like Bernard DeVoto. Alongside his brilliant wife and editor, Avis, DeVoto was a firebrand of American liberty, free speech, and perhaps our greatest national treasure: public…
Ramon Ramirez’s Dog is a collection of essays written over the years about the adventures and misadventures, mostly outside but occasionally inside the diplomatic career of a U.S. ambassador. Common threads weaving the stories together are a desire for a life well-lived, balancing career with family and friends, keeping physically fit, and appreciating the natural world around us.
David Dunford, who has written about serious issues like our disastrous invasion of Iraq in 2003 and a memoir about the time he spent as a diplomat working on U.S. policy toward the Middle East, has shared memories of how he spent his life when not trying to climb the career ladder.
The title essay recalls Dunford, a recent college graduate in Madrid, as an engineering trainee, struggling to master Spanish pronunciation. His Spanish roommate instructs him to repeat a tongue twister involving Ramon Ramirez and his dog.
He writes about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat during his high school and college athletic career in “Glory Days." The humorous moments of coaching eight and nine-year-old boys are the subject of another essay.
There are stories about the challenges of traveling the world with large dogs, and several pieces about the ways Dunford found to stay mentally and physically active during retirement. He includes a journal recounting how the pandemic affected him and his family. He does reflect on what it is like to be an ambassador.
Being retired allows him a refreshing candor revealed in his one-sentence poem, “Ambassador,” and his advice to a urologist who imagined he might want to be an ambassador.
