Sam Keith (1)

In 1968, at the age of 51, Richard Proenneke left the lower 48 states and began construction of his log cabin on the shore of Twin Lakes, Alaska. This book is a collection of photos from his adventure and his journal entries for the 16 months he built and lived at the lake. This was first printed in 1973 and is a special edition celebrating the 50th anniversary of his journey. His observations and insights are remarkable as in this passage taken from towards the end of the book.

"News never show more changes much. It's just the same things happening to different people. I would rather experience things happening to me than read about them happening to others. I am my own newspaper and my own radio. I honestly don't believe that man was meant to know everything going on in the world, all at the same time. A man turns on the TV and all those commentators bombard him with the local, the national and the international news. The newspapers do the same thing, and the poor guy with all the immediate problems of his own life is burdened with those of the whole world.
I don't know what the answer is. In time man gets used to almost anything, but the problem seems to be that technology is advancing faster than he can adjust to it. I think it's time we started applying the brakes, slowing down our greed and slowing down the world.

I have found that some of the simplest things have given me the most pleasure. They didn't cost me a lot of money either. The just worked on my senses. "

Richard Proenneke's words could never be more true than they are today! If you want to escape the news and technology of today for a little while, get lost in the wilderness of Alaska and read this book and let Richard take you along. show less

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