About book One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey (2003)
This book is the log of Dick Proenneke's 18 months living in the wilderness of Alaska. During this time he built a log cabin completely by himself with hand tools. The book started out a little dry for me because it's pretty much a very short summary (I believe there is a fuller version of his diaries, but this one has been edited) of his day to day work on the cabin and changes in the weather and landscape as the seasons change, as well as animal sightings. But it really grows on you. While I am not even tempted to rough it, especially in winter temperatures of -75 (!!!) I really appreciate that someone is secure enough that he can live by himself for over a year without any modern conveniences or company or news sources (and this was in the 1970s before the internet). You have to be comfortable with your own thoughts, that's for sure, -- something we are all challenged with because of the constant barrage of interruptions which we allow into our lives. His regard for the animal life was very touching. While he did hunt for his own meat, he would dress it and conserve it the proper way and used every bit of it, giving the parts he couldn't use (although the man could use just about every part of the animal for something!) to the birds and other "camp robbers" as he called them. He fished too but once he caught a trout that was so colorful and beautiful he put it back, even though he was very hungry for some fish. He made his own furniture, dishes, utensils -- everything. He did get supplies flown in from a friend every few months, but the visits were very short -- pretty much "here's your stuff" and then he would fly out again.In one scene he stumbles upon a caribou mother and very young calf which are being chased by a bear. The bear was going after the calf but changed course and pursued the mother. Dick decided to take the calf home to his cabin because he figured the mother probably didn't make it. He fed it a mixture of various things and the calf seemed to be doing fine. He took it back to the original site the next day and saw evidences that the mother had been back to look for it, but not finding it had left. So he took it home again and it soon died. How he regretted taking it it away in the first place! He saw many wolves and greatly admired their beauty. I would have been so afraid. And he also had two very close encounters with a bear, the second one where he thought for sure he was a goner. But he made it out. I also love at the end where he says "I have often thought about what I would do out here if I were stricken with a serious illness, if I broke a leg, cut myself badly, or had an attack of appendicitis. Almost as quickly as the thought came, I dismissed it. Why worry about something that isn't? Worrying about something that might happen is not a healthy pastime. A man's a fool to live his life under a shadow like that. Maybe that's how an ulcer begins." Very wise words. I really enjoyed this book. It also has gorgeous photos of the landscape, his cabin and some wildlife. And maybe, just maybe, when I even try to contemplate what -75 degrees feels like, I won't complain so much about the winter here.
This is not a book like Into the Wild, about a totally unprepared idiot committing suicide by Alaska. Dick Proenneke is the real deal. He goes out into the southwestern Alaskan wilderness and builds a cabin and lives off the land for 18 months, with semi-irregular supplies funneled through a bush pilot 40 miles away. A practical idealist, if there is such a thing, he gets about as up close and personal with the land and the wildlife as you can get and still fly out in one piece. This book is an interpretation of his daily journal by Sam Keith and Keith knows enough to keep out of the way of Dick's story. The tale is told in the first person in spare prose sharpened by a keen eye and an understated humor, with an attention to the details of his life that is flat hypnotic. Who knew building a fireplace one rock at a time could be so mesmerizing? I kept flipping back and forth between the text and the photographs. One of Dick's most attractive qualities is his fierce pride in his work.In the beginning he writes, "...I was here to test myself, not that I had never done it before, but this time it was to be a more thorough and lasting examination...What was I capable of what I didn't know yet? What about my limits? Could I truly enjoy my own company for an entire year? Was I equal to everything this wild land could throw at me?"Already something of a vest-pocket philosopher, his adventure mostly confirms what he thought when he went in, and he is no follower of Thorstein Veblein. "Needs? I guess that is what bothers so many folks. They keep expanding their needs until they are dependent on too many things and too many other people. I don't understand economics, and I suppose the country would be in a real mess if people suddenly cut out a lot of things they don't need. I wonder how many things in the average American home could be eliminated if the question were asked, "Must I really have this?""and"Funny thing about comfort--one man's comfort is another man's misery. Most people don't work hard enough physically anymore, and comfort is not easy to find. It is surprising how comfortable a hard bunk can be after you come down off a mountain."We hear a lot of this kind of talk lately. Funny thing is, Dick went into Twin Lakes in the spring of 1967. Over forty years ago.Well worth reading, if only to watch over his shoulder as he builds his cabin from the ground up, without a power tool in sight.--- Click here for Dick's Wikipedia entry.And here's the satellite view of Twin Lakes.
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Jason and I bought these books for our dads last year after we saw the PBS special, which was awesome. Dads loved the books and sent them back to us to read. Jason just finished it and suddenly has ideas about building all of our own furniture from FS land scraps. If we were living in a rustic log cabin, I'd be all for it. But, just can't see it fitting into our modular home decor. True, true the odyssey adds to the growing list of reasons to get to AK.If you promise to send it back, you can borrow our copy Troy. I'm not sure when I'll get to it next.
—Toni
Okay first I must admit to everyone that I am entranced with Alaska, so just about anything having to do with it will attract me. This book fascinated me mostly because of the man's skills in making do with little and being so resourceful and level-headed. But then, the chapter entitled "Reflections" just blew me out of the water. I want to learn to see the wonderful things that life shows me and feel that I am often blocked from seeing them because of my own concepts and fears. Dick Proenneke proved to himself that this is the case, our fears and perceived needs keep us from enjoying a richer life.
—Nancy
After finishing Cheryl Strayed's WILD, I dove head first into this book. It's about a 50 year-old man who moves from Iowa to Alaska in the early 1970's to build a cabin with no modern tools and attempt to live out there in the wilderness. Who doesn't love that?However, I have to say I skipped the last fifty pages.After 2/3rd's in, the "Up at dawn, stoked the fire at 5:00 a.m., temperature -24." got a little old.But the biggest thing that got too old for me was the "Man's got to do what a man's got to do" references. It makes the book feel it is ONLY written for men, because apparently only men can understand wanting to live in the wilderness. But having said that, it was written in 1973, so the sexism is sort of understandable. Proennecke's ingenuity of making something from nothing, and his talented carpentry and hunting skills are amazing to read about. And he's so adorably humble.Most of the book, is detailing how he built his cabin, hunted, cooked, made tools, made warmer clothes, weathered out bad weather, bears, etc.Moreover, some of the simple prose and appreciation of nature is absolutely wonderful:"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. They just worked on my senses. Did you ever pick large blueberries after a summer rain? Walk through a grove of cottonwoods open like a park and see the blue sky beyond the shimmering gold of leaves? Pull on dry woolen socks after you've peeled off the wet ones? Come in out of the subzero and shiver yourself warm in front of a wood fire? The world is full of such things." p. 213How can you NOT love that? I think it's a good piece of history, and an Alaskan primer. I'm sad that undoubtably Sam Keith and Richard Proenneke are no longer with us. They represent a kind of old-school, standup-men that we no longer have in society.
—Natalie
