REVIEWS   A Wilderness Within The Life of Sigurd F. Olson David Backes

"David Backes's skillful biography, A Wilderness Within, explores in depth both the public activities of Olson's productive conservation and preservation career and the torments that dogged him throughout his life. Thanks to years of careful research by Backes, we have a colorful portrayal of Sigurd F. Olson, backcountry woodsman and guide, wilderness advocate, negotiator, administrator, teacher, author, and environmental icon." New York Times Book Review "Fifteen years after his death, Olson may still be Minnesota's most beloved author. I opened this first biography of Sigurd Olson with great anticipation. And its author, David Backes, did not disappoint me. A Wilderness Within is a fascinating book. And the Sigurd Olson who emerges from its pages is far more complex and heroic than the persona that he fashioned for himself. Backes has done an enormous amount of research, and he explores many aspects of Olson's personality, but he never loses sight of his main story--Olson's desperate need to fulfill himself as a writer. There will be other books about Sigurd Olson, but I doubt they'll be more compelling than this one." Barton Sutter for the Star Tribune "Acknowledged as a leader of the American environmental movement, this biography reveals the forces that drove Sigurd Olson--writer, teacher, activist. From opposing the building of roads in the wilderness to preserving the nation's most treasured wild rivers, he was a man with a vision for the natural world, and the lyricism and evocative beauty of his prose became the model other nature writers would follow." Sports Afield "In our talks, Olson also detailed the difficulties he encountered in becoming a successful writer. But it wasn't until I read Backes' excellent biography that I fully realized how painful the process was." Dennis Anderson, Minneapolis Star Tribune "David Backes, [Olson's] biographer (also author of Canoe Country: An Embattled Wilderness and The Wilderness Companion), uses private journals, interviews, and other unpublished sources to reveal sides of Sigurd Olson that go far beyond the picture I'd formed of the man from his books." James Mathewson, Mpls/St. Paul "The new biography on the life of Sigurd F. Olson is being released at a most appropriate time. With three separate bills now bouncing around the halls of Congress to redirect management of the BWCAW, the burgeoning rhetoric to sway public opinion cries out for a good dose of historical reality. I found A Wilderness Within by David Backes to be a fascinating and inspiring account of the development of conservation in America and the canoe country in particular." Boundary Waters Journal "In the last decades of Sigurd Olson's life, he was a mythic figure to friends and conservationists. Successful writer, teacher, administrator, national wilderness leader and spokesman: all of those accomplishments wrapped up in a handsome, white-haired, charismatic package. But it had been a long, and largely suppressed, journey to get there, a progression marked by self-doubt, rejection, perseverance and, finally, triumph. That struggle is portrayed in a captivating biography by David Backes, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In A Wilderness Within: The Life of Sigurd F. Olson, Backes traces Olson's life from his boyhood in Illinois and Wisconsin, through his frustrating attempts to become a writer, to his critical role as a national wilderness advocate. 'I had this reverential feeling toward him,' said Douglas Wood, a Minnesota author who knew Olson during the last five years of his life. 'It made it hard for me to see him as a real person. This book humanizes the icon, the myth. You can see Sig with warts, as he was, the problems he faced in life. For me, that makes the story of his life more inspiring. He wasn't always the white-haired perfectly controlled and perfectly realized individual that he was in his later years. He had to struggle to claim his wisdom.' Backes is an ideal choice as a biographer. He knew Olson in his last years. . . . And he kept in touch with Elizabeth Olson after Sigurd's death. At the suggestion of a publisher, he asked her if she felt ready for a biography of her husband." St. Paul Pioneer Press "I knew Sigurd Olson the writer, Sig Olson the mentor, Sig Olson the wilderness warrior and elder statesman; now I know more fully Sigurd Olson the man, and I am more inspired than ever. A Wilderness Within presents a compelling, integrated portrait of a Northwoods icon, describing a life more courageous, more human, and finally more admirable than the myth. I thank David Backes for it." Douglas Wood, author of Old Turtle and Paddle Whispers "A Wilderness Within provides valuable insights into the life and times of Sig Olson. During the big battles of the 1960s, Sig was the nation's most eloquent and knowledgeable advocate for the protection of wilderness and wild rivers." Stewart L. Udall, U.S. Secretary of the Interior 1961-1969 "Insightful, elegantly written, meticulously researched and sympathetic without being unbalanced." Paul Gruchow, author of Grass Roots and Journal of Prairie Year "Wilderness guru Sigurd Olson spent his life fighting to save the wildlands of America for the backpack and the canoe. In this deeply probing and rich biography, David Backes reveals that Olson, unknown to all around him, was secretly fighting and eventually won another battle against the demons and frustrations within his own psyche. It was the battle that left us Olson's epic books on his wilderness theology and the human need for primitive places. Every wilderness lover and parks user owes Backes a resounding 'bravo' for this revealing, eminently readable biography of the restless and driving spirit who did more than any other to shape the modern parks system in America." Fred Bodsworth, author of Last of the Curlews "This is biography at its best, a book that is certain to become a classic." Gerald Killan, King's College, London, Ontario "Virtually everyone who loves the northwoods has read one or more of Sig Olson's best-selling books. An ardent outdoorsman with a gift of vision and language, Olson captured the essence of wild areas, while teaching the reader lessons in ecology and outdoor life. Now, his life is detailed by a fellow environmental writer who had complete access to Olson's family, his papers and photographs. The result is a book that is interesting to everyone, but will be required reading for Sig Olson fans." Lake Superior Magazine "From a personal, non-political perspective, Backes supplies fascinating details of Olson's struggle with writing (a late-bloomer, his first book, The Singing Wilderness, was published when he was 57), his virulent discontent with a career as a junior college dean, and his post-World War II work in Europe with the U.S. Army. He also offers information that readers might use to speculate about early influences in Olson's life. His father, a dictatorial, fundamentalist Baptist minister, would have preferred a pastoral career for his son, and some might argue that Sigurd became a missionary after all. Backes's account seems well-researched, is competently written, and will doubtless be a standard text for anyone interested in the history of American conservation and the BWCAW." The Minnesota Volunteer