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“If wilderness is outlawed, only outlaws can save wilderness.” Edward Abbey
In a collection of gripping stories of adventure, Doug Peacock, loner, iconoclast, environmentalist, and contemporary of Edward Abbey, reflects on a life lived in the wild, asking the question many ask in their twilight years: “Was It Worth It?”
Recounting sojourns with Abbey, but also Peter Matthiessen, Doug Tompkins, Jim Harrison, Yvon Chouinard and others, Peacock observes that what he calls “solitary walks” were the greatest currency he and his buddies ever shared. He asserts that “solitude is the deepest well I have encountered in this life,” and the introspection it affords has made him who he is: a lifelong protector of the wilderness and its many awe-inspiring inhabitants.
With adventures both close to home (grizzlies in Yellowstone and jaguars in the high Sonoran Desert) and farther afield (tigers in Siberia, jaguars again in Belize, spirit bears in the wilds of British Columbia, all the amazing birds of the Galapagos), Peacock acknowledges that Covid 19 has put “everyone’s mortality in the lens now and it’s not necessarily a telephoto shot.” Peacock recounts these adventures to try to understand and explain his perspective on Nature: That wilderness is the only thing left worth saving.
In the tradition of Peacock’s many best-selling books, Was It Worth It? is both entertaining and thought provoking. It challenges any reader to make certain that the answer to the question for their own life is “Yes!”
About <I>The Essential Grizzly</I>:
“In this riveting work, the Peacocks convincingly show how America’s greatest carnivore connects Americans to their culture, their history, their humanity, and the values we most treasure.” —Robert R. Kennedy, Jr.
About <I>In the Shadow of the Sabertooth</I>:
Skillfully told by a naturalist with a distinctive approach to the many ancient mysteries that remain
About <I>Walking It Off</I>:
“Peacock is a direct literary descendant of Thoreau, with a few genes from Audubon and his mentor, Edward Abbey… His response to the natural world is visceral, intellectual and spiritual at the same time. In this book, he writes about it beautifully, in prose that begs comparison to the best of Peter Matthiessen… His meditations on war and wilderness are painfully apt today, with America fighting new battles abroad, led by an administration that seems to be at war with wilderness at home.” —Phil Caputo, Pulitzer Prize winner for <I>A Rumor of War</I>
Publishers Weekly Starred Review: "This passionate work is a welcome and worthy addition to the growing canon of environmental literature."
Publishers Weekly Starred Review: Naturalist and explorer Peacock (In the Shadow of the Sabertooth) presents a captivating retrospective on his life in the wild. Using vivid imagery, he reflects on humanity's relationship with the natural world, his tour of duty in Vietnam, living among Grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park, and, appropriately, mortality. Each memory encapsulates Peacock's profound compassion for humans and animals alike, and his deep sense of responsibility. After attending to "too much collateral damage—that cowardly phrase they apply to the pile of small, dismembered bodies after a botched air attack," as a Special Forces medic in Vietnam from 1965 to 1968, Peacock "applied the anger I had built doing that to the defense of wild things." Readers will appreciate his madcap yet reverential takes on nature; recalling a close encounter with a snake on the Missouri headwaters, he wonders, "How the hell could anyone believe humans were the center of the world when facing poisonous reptiles, grizzlies... or polar bears on equal terms and neutral turf?" While ruefully aware of the prospect of catastrophic global warming ("The beast of today is climate change"), Peacock's "heightened awareness" of the beauty of the wild never wanes. This passionate work is a welcome and worthy addition to the growing canon of environmental literature. (Jan.) https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-952338-04-5
<p>Was It Worth It? : A Wilderness Warrior's Long Trail Home
<p>CONTENTS
<p>Preface: Winter Count
<p>The Hayduke Ancestry
<p>Treasure in the Sierra Madre
<p>Counting Sheep
<p>Why I Don’t Trophy Hunt
<p>Sheepherder Stew for Abbey
<p>Monsoon
<p>Headwaters
<p>Stalking Polar Bears with Doug Tompkins
<p>Round River Conservation Studies
<p>Spirit Bears
<p>Tiger Tales
<p>Cheating Robinson Crusoe
<p>Galapagos
<p>Reburying the Arrowheads
<p>Postscript: The Perfect Bait for an Outbreak