Sam Keith (1)

Slightly embarrassed that it took me fifty years to read this masterpiece in outdoor writing. Composed as a diary, each entry offers a precise and open view of what it is like to live in nature’s majesty among the creatures of the Alaskan wilds. Crafting a small cabin with only hand tools, and building furniture and other outbuildings to make his life more manageable, Proenneke gives us an open window into not only his Alaskan life but his soul as well. He was a kind and gentle man who show more honored the astounding lives around him by treating everything he came in contact with love and respect. Well-written and very interesting, the book is as timely today as it was fifty years ago. One of the most amazing humans I have ever been made aware of, and to think he loved his new home so much he stayed there for over thirty years until old age made him return to civilization. show less

I've spent some solitary time in the northern Montana wilderness, working as a fire lookout, so this book pulled at me -- and it turned out to be everything I'd anticipated. The volume is considered a classic of twentieth-century wilderness writing -- a story simultaneously evoking a sense of pioneering, of escape, and of appreciation for an unspoiled world.

One Man's Wilderness is an edited diary of sixteen months in the live of a most remarkable man, who went alone into the Alaska show more backcountry to build a solitary cabin and a life for himself. The style is matter-of-fact, but still conveying a strong sense of the amazing adventure and glorious setting; the author's accompanying photographs are lovely, compelling, and informative. It's an wonderful story, and a story well told. It would be hard to finish the volume and not feel feel both envy and longing, for the man's adventure, his accomplishments, and his skill. Perhaps the most remarkable part of the story, though, is that it continued for decades after the end of this volume's narrative -- the diary's author spent some thirty years living in that cabin.

Very highly recommended. show less

Like many people I hugely admire Dick Proenneke's self-sufficiency, crafting bare trees into a functioning household with just a few simple hand tools. Beyond that is his deeper lesson about the pleasures of physical labor, few material possessions and a respect for nature. Proenneke's lifestyle is a powerful reminder that there are other ways of being that don't rely on technology, maximizing the things that make us most human. The book was written in 1973 but has become increasingly show more relevant in our virtual worlds of video, internet and phones. Lest my thoughts here give the wrong impression it is not a philosophical tract like Walden, it's really a very simple diary of being self sufficient in the Alaskan back-country. Born in 1916 and a WWII vet he comes across as such a likeable person, and his woodworking crafts so admirable, we can't help but become pulled into his world. In time he became famous, John Denver came to visit, the National Park System has since made his cabin an historic building and there is a well known PBS documentary about him. For many Americans Proenneke is like Alaska itself, a vision of the possible unspoiled by civilization. show less

Well what can I say? I have admired this man, Richard Proenneke, for many, many, many years. I remember watching the homemade movie on PBS when it first came out. This man has achieved everything I have ever wanted to do, but for one life occurrence or another, never got the chance. To live back in a time, even the 50's and 60's, to glass a piece of land and say, "This is where I will build my future." must have been the ultimate feeling of freedom. He needn't worry about bothersome building show more codes or NEC standards or any other humanity-flawed fabrication garbage, he just set out to build a damn fine cabin that still exists today.
Some may find this book boring or pointless, but please... listen to me, give this a chance. Put yourself in a place of complete and total seclusion, with nothing but the voice of nature whispering in your ear. Listen to its tales, and ponder its words... then you will feel what Mr. Proenneke lived. This was his life for 35 years, and to read his thoughts was, for me, the greatest satisfaction i could have ever felt. Mr. Proenneke will forever be, in my eyes, the greatest modern day pioneer this world has ever seen. Long live his legend! show less