The Gift of the Deer

1998
Author:

Helen Hoover
Illustrations by Adrian Hoover

The classic story of a family of deer and the humans who loved them.

Illustrated by Adrian Hoover

One Christmas Eve an emaciated deer stumbled across the yard of Helen Hoover’s remote cabin in northern Minnesota. Hoover and her husband Adrian named this deer Peter, and he became the central character in Hoover’s beloved book, The Gift of the Deer. This classic story of a family of deer and the humans who loved them was first published in 1966 and is Hoover’s best-selling book. Readers young and old will delight in this touching story of two north woods families.

Gentle and evocative. Whether you’re an active or vicarious woodswoman, you can count on Hoover to bring you into the forest with her, sharing her quiet adventures.

Minnesota Women’s Press

One Christmas Eve an emaciated deer stumbled across the yard of Helen Hoover’s remote cabin in northern Minnesota. Barely surviving the brutal winter, gaunt from starvation, blind in one eye from a hunting wound, he became the central character in Hoover’s best-selling book, The Gift of the Deer.

Hoover and her husband Adrian named this deer Peter and nursed him back to health, setting out cedar branches, corn, and carrots. From that Christmas on, the Hoovers observed Peter and his growing clan for four years. Hoover relates the story of these deer, including the birth of new fawns, the danger of predators, even the amusing way a mother deer teaches “manners” to her young.

The Gift of the Deer, first published in 1966, sold over 50,000 copies and is Hoover’s best-selling book. It is now available in an inexpensive paperback edition that is beautifully illustrated by Adrian Hoover. Readers young and old will delight in this touching story of two north woods families.

ISBN 0-8166-3128-X Paper $14.95 COBE
224 pages 14 line illustrations 5 7/8 x 9 April
Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage Book Series
Translation inquiries: Knopf

Excerpt:
“Peter ducked his head, the great antlers which had earlier knocked against the door now reaching past the lintel into the room. He tapped on the step with a hoof and showed the tip of his tongue. In his own way he was telling us that he had come for supper.” (p60 ms)

Helen Hoover (1910-1984) is the author of several books, including The Years of the Forest (1973) and A Place in the Woods (1969). Before moving to the remote wilderness of northern Minnesota in 1954, she was an accomplished chemist. Many of her books are illustrated by her husband Adrian, and she enjoyed popularity with readers across the country.

Gentle and evocative. Whether you’re an active or vicarious woodswoman, you can count on Hoover to bring you into the forest with her, sharing her quiet adventures.

Minnesota Women’s Press

Helen Hoover is one of those rare writers who can describe the natural world warmly, intimately, and affectionately without being in the least sentimental or childish. A lot of north woods writing is in the boys

Hoover fills in the background with a wealth of knowledge and observation, not only about the deer, but about birds, trees, wild flowers, the whole natural background. But the book is primarily about the deer, and that is its lasting virtue.

New York Times Book Review, 1966

The book conveys Hoover’s strong love for the environment in which she lives and provides interesting reading, as much about the setting as about the deer themselves.

Library Journal, 1966