Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 508.73
EAN: 9780195053050
Format: Special Edition
ISBN: 0195053052
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: October 22, 1987
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Sales Rank: 167587
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
This special edition of the highly acclaimed A Sand County Almanac commemorates the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Aldo Leopold, one of the foremost conservationists of our century. First published in 1949, it combines some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau with an outspoken and highly ethical regard for America's relationship to the land. It is a unique book, a classic work of conservation, the forefunner of such important books as Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire, and Robert Finch's The Primal Place.

Amazon.com Review:
Published in 1949, shortly after the author's death, A Sand County Almanac is a classic of nature writing, widely cited as one of the most influential nature books ever published. Writing from the vantage of his summer shack along the banks of the Wisconsin River, Leopold mixes essay, polemic, and memoir in his book's pages. In one famous episode, he writes of killing a female wolf early in his career as a forest ranger, coming upon his victim just as she was dying, "in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes.... I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, no wolves would mean hunters' paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view." Leopold's road-to-Damascus change of view would find its fruit some years later in his so-called land ethic, in which he held that nothing that disturbs the balance of nature is right. Much of Almanac elaborates on this basic premise, as well as on Leopold's view that it is something of a human duty to preserve as much wild land as possible, as a kind of bank for the biological future of all species. Beautifully written, quiet, and elegant, Leopold's book deserves continued study and discussion today. --Gregory McNamee




Rating: - The anchor volume of an American conservation bookshelf
The definitive anchor volume on the bookshelf of modern American conservation. Leopold presents the big picture, painted as many small scenes. Again and again, I return to the February essay, "Good Oak," a classic of natural history writing. Leopold is a natural historian of the old school.

If recycling or climate change or energy has brought you into the conservation movement, this is the first book to read to get grounded in conservation from the ecological perspective. For those ... Read More

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Rating: - A book for every season
Aldo Leopold's book of essays is a good one to pull out every month and remark on the change of seasons, the month gone by and the one to come. It will plant you as firmly on the sandy plains of Adams County, Wisconsin, watching the bright red blackberry bushes in the morning sun, as any text you will ever see.

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Rating: - Frankly, I was disappointed
I expected a book that would move me emotionally as well as intellectually, like Abby's Desert Solitude. That's not what this book is all about. It is well written, yes, but it only shoots for the intellect, not the heart, or at least it did for me. It is still an important read.

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Rating: - Classic
A classic. As we rush into brave new environmental worlds where angels fear to tread, and as our kids grow up plugged in rather than playing in the dirt, this should be required reading in all schools (and required for the parents, too). Besides presenting a compelling and important argument, it's also a very good book.

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Rating: - Leaving a light footprint on the good earth
I re-read Leopold's Sand County Almanac every couple of years or so. It's not just a beautifully poetic celebration of the land. Its defense of a new sense of moral responsibility to the environment, spelled out in the book's "The Land Ethic," is a bracing tonic against the modern temptation to take the biosphere for granted. In these days of global warming, fossil fuel depletion, and escalating degradation of the land, water, and atmosphere, Leopold's 60-year-old plea for a new environmental ... Read More

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