Synopses & Reviews
Gene Logsdonand#8217;s The Man Who Created Paradise is a message of hope at a time when the sustainability of the earth appears to many to be hopeless. The fable, inspired by a true story, tells how young Wally Spero looked at one of the bleakest places in Americaand#8212;the strip-mined spoil banks of southeastern Ohioand#8212;and saw in it his escape from the drudgery of his factory job. He bought an old bulldozer and used the machine to carve patiently, acre by acre, a beautiful little farm out of a seemingly worthless wasteland. This charming story is the purest distillation yet of what Gene Logsdon has been writing as a journalist and author through the course of some twenty books of nonfiction and hundreds of magazine articles. Environmental restoration is the task of our time. The work of healing our land begins in our own backyards and farms, in our neighborhoods and our regions. Humans can turn the earth into a veritable paradiseand#8212;if they really want to.Noted photographer Gregory Spaid retraced the trail that Logsdon traveled when he was inspired to write The Man Who Created Paradise. His photographs evoke the same soulful yearning for wholeness, for ties to land and community, that infuses the fableand#8217;s hopeful, poetic prose. Seldom have words and images complemented each other so well.
Review
and#8220;This book is a work of social, ecological, and moral imaginationand#8212;a reminder that we do not live in the only or the best possible world.and#8221;and#8212;Jedediah Purdy
Review
and#8220;This, then, is a book of two visions: one of disease, one of health. Or to put it another way, Gene Logsdon has had the generosity and the courage to allow a vision of Hell to call forth in himself its natural opposite.and#8221; and#8212;Wendell Berry
Review
and#8220;If you're feeling despairing, this book is the tonic. The American equivalent of Jean Giono's The Man Who Planted Trees, this slim volume should be read aloud at kitchen tables and over the radio until it becomes a national legendand#8212;a legend we might then try to live up to.and#8221;and#8212;Bill McKibben
Review
and#8220;A metal grinder at a foundry possessing the pre-requisites for an agrarian mind becomes an artist on an exploited landscape and brings it back to become a working farm. Well, there is hope.and#8221; and#8212;Wes Jackson
Review
and#8220;If you look hard at rural America, you canand#8217;t help seeing the scarred land and battered communities, and you canand#8217;t help wondering how we might begin the work of healing. Hereand#8217;s how, Gene Logsdon suggestsand#8212;not by going backward to some supposedly idyllic past but by moving forward to a way of life that is respectful of natural limits, inventive, cooperative, low-tech, and local. This big-hearted parable about a land and people restored is sure to lift the spirits of anyone who cares about the blooming earth.and#8221;and#8212;Scott Russell Sanders
Review
"The Man Who Created Paradise is an art object of a book, a perfect birthday gift, a fable to read over and over because it identifies the rural psyche gone awry and made right again. Much like Wes Jackson's Altars of Unhewn Stone, it cries out for greater circulation . . . " and#8211;Acres USA
Review
and#8220;Utopian dreaming? Maybe, but Logsdon shows that the technology exists to make Speroand#8217;s vision a reality.and#8221; and#8212;Booklist
Synopsis
Gene Logsdon's
The Man Who Created Paradise is a message of hope at a time when the very concept of earth stewardship is under attack. The fable, inspired by a true story, tells how Wally Spero looked at one of the bleakest places in America--a raw and barren strip-mined landscape--and saw in it his escape from the drudgery of his factory job. He bought an old bulldozer and used the machine to carve patiently, acre by acre, a beautiful little farm out of a seemingly worthless wasteland.
Wally's story is a charming distillation of the themes that the late, beloved Gene Logsdon returned to again and again in his many books and hundreds of articles. Environmental restoration is the task of our time. The work of healing our land begins in our own backyards and farms, in our neighborhoods and our regions. Humans can turn the earth into a veritable paradise--if they really want to.
Noted photographer Gregory Spaid retraced the trail that Logsdon traveled when he was inspired to write The Man Who Created Paradise. His photographs evoke the same yearning for wholeness, for ties to land and community, that infuses the fable's poetic prose.
About the Author
Gene Logsdon, an independent writer and farmer in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, is the author of more than twenty books on farming and rural life. In 2000 Logsdon was awarded the prestigious Ohionana Library Association Career Award for his achievements as an author.Gregory Spaid is a nationally recognized documentary photographer. In 2000 he published his first book of photographs, Grace: Photographs of Rural America. Spaid teaches photography at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.