The Singing Wilderness, Sigurd F. Olson
The Singing Wilderness, Sigurd F. Olson
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The Singing Wilderness

Author: Sigurd F. Olson

Narrator: Douglas Wood

Unabridged: 5 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/20/2022

Categories: Nonfiction, Nature


Synopsis

Acute natural perceptivity and a profound knowledge of the relationships to be found in nature combine here in vivid evocations of the sights, the sounds, the vast stillnesses, and the events of the wilderness as the seasons succeed each other. But Mr. Olson is not content merely to "describe"; he probes for meanings that will lead the listener to a different and more revealing way of looking at the out-of-doors and to a deeper sense of its eternal values. In each of the thirty-four chapters of The Singing Wilderness he has sought to capture an essential quality of our magnificent lake and forest heritage. He shows us what can be read from the rocks of the great Canadian Shield; he offers a delightful essay on the virtues of pine knots as fuel; he writes of the ways of a canoe, of flashing trout in the pools of the Isabella, of tamarack bogs, caribou moss, the flight of wild geese, timber wolves, and the birds of the ski trails. And much more, with something to satisfy every taste for wilderness experience.

The Singing Wilderness is a book that no lover of nature will want to be without. To anyone who contemplates a vacation in the lake country of northern Minnesota and adjoining Canada, it is the perfect vade mecum.

About Sigurd F. Olson

Sigurd F. Olson was for more than thirty years a wilderness guide in the Quetico-Superior country, and no one knew with the same intimacy the mysteries of the lakes and forests of that magnificent primitive area. To the many out-of-doorsmen who canoed and portaged with him through this wilderness, he was known honorifically as the Bourgeois-as the voyageurs of old called their trusted leaders through this same region.

Mr. Olson was born in Chicago in 1899, and educated at the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Illinois. For several years he taught biology at Ely Junior College and later served as dean. He was president of the National Parks Association, a member of its Board of Trustees, and was for years active in organizations devoted to conservation problems.

Mr. Olson was a frequent contributor to magazines concerned with the outdoors, and is the author of several books including Listening Point, The Lonely Land, Runes of the North, Reflection from the North Country, and Of Time and Place. Until his death in 1982, he made his home with his wife, Elizabeth, in Ely, Minnesota, gateway to his beloved Quetico-Superior country.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Craig on September 19, 2024

Add a star if you're someone who breaks into a smile when you hear the word "portage" or feel a sense of disappointment when the winter temperature just refuses to go below 10. (If you're not one of those people, I can assure you after living in Wisconsin for 30 years that they actually exist.) The b......more

Goodreads review by Doug on April 20, 2014

A classic literary work on nature. A Sand County Almanac for the Northwoods. Sigurd Olson's writing feeds my adventurer's heart like no other writer's. I find myself returning to it again and again, rereading his stories and essays as devotionals which reconnect me to the heart of wilderness.......more

Goodreads review by Tony on February 27, 2013

"The Singing Wilderness" is notable both for Sigurd F. Olson's writing and for Francis Lee Jaques' illustrations. Published in 1956, the author's essays describe the wild country of northern Minnesota and nearby Canada. A glance at some of the titles of Olson's chapters, which are organized primaril......more

Goodreads review by Ryan on November 18, 2020

It is no accident that I find myself sitting in a delightfully cozy cabin on Lake Superior in mid-November, a blanket of snow on the ground, a woolen throw across my lap, the crackling warmth of a fire beside me, the Big Lake roaring through the windows just a few short paces away, and not one but t......more

Goodreads review by Joanne on September 29, 2018

This book makes one feel as though you are in the woods and paddling the lakes.......more