A household icon of the environmental movement, Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) may be the most quoted conservationist in history. A Sand County Almanac has sold millions of copies and his lyrical writings are venerated for their perceptions about land and how people might live in concert with the whole community of life.

But who is the man behind the words? How did he arrive at his profound and poetic insights, inspiring generations of environmentalists? Building on past scholarship and a fresh study of Leopold's unpublished archival materials, Julianne Lutz Newton retraces the intellectual journey that generated such passion and intelligence.

Aldo Leopold's Odyssey illuminates his lifelong quest for answers to a fundamental issue: how can people live prosperously on the land and keep it healthy, too? Leopold's journey took him from Iowa to Yale to the Southwest to Wisconsin, with fascinating stops along the way to probe the causes of early land settlement failures, contribute to the emerging science of ecology, and craft a new vision for land use.

More than a biography, this articulate volume is a guide to one man's intellectual growth, and an inspirational resource for anyone pondering the relationships between people and the land.

(The New York Times Book Review)

(Matt Low, Isle)

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1: Seed Plots

Chapter 2: Written on the Hills

Chapter 3: The Middle Border

Chapter 4: Interpreting Pharaoh's Dream

Chapter 5: An American System

Chapter 6: A Common Concept of Land

Chapter 7: Ecological Poetry

Chapter 8: The Germ and the Juggernaut

Chapter 9: Wildlife and the New Man

Chapter 10: Knowing Nature

Chapter 11: A New Kind of Conservation

Notes

Bibliography

Index