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A Sand County Almanac
and SKETCHES
HERE AND THERE
by AIdo
Leopold
Illustrated by CHARLES W. SCHWARTZ
Introduction
by ROBERT FINCH
The seminal essay:
The Land
Ethic
"THERE
are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. These
essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot.
Like
winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress
began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still
higher 'standard of living' is worth its cost in things natural,
wild, and free. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese
is more important than television, and the chance to find a
pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech.
These
wild things, I admit, had little human value until mechanization
assured us of a good breakfast, and until science disclosed the drama
of where they come from and how they live. The whole conflict thus
boils down to question of degree. We of the minority see a law of
diminishing returns in progress, our opponents do not.
One
must make shift with things as they are. These essays are my shifts.
They are grouped in three parts...."
(from Aldo
Leopold's forward to A Sand County Almanac)
No other single book of American nature writing—with the exception of
Walden—has
achieved such lasting stature as A
Sand County Almanac. Since
it was first published by Oxford in 1949, one year after the
author's death, it has become an established classic in the field,
admired by an ever-growing number of readers, imitated by hundreds of
writers, and providing the core for modern conservation ethics.
Yet
its broad appeal and influence have never been fully accounted for.
It may appear obvious to say that A Sand
County Almanac would
not have had nearly as much effect on its readers if it had not been,
first and foremost, highly
successful as a book, that
is, as a reading experience. Obvious perhaps, but not commonly
recognized. Much has been written about Aldo Leopold the forester,
Leopold the wildlife ecologist, Leopold the conservationist, Leopold
the environmental philosopher and educator, and so on—but little
about Leopold the writer. This is true of nature writers in general,
who continue to be looked upon as naturalists ( or almost anything
else ) first and writers last. But the situation is complicated in
Leopold's case in that he was an extraordinarily gifted and energetic
man who, during his life time, achieved substantial reputations in
several nonliterary fields..."
--Robert Finch
"Outdoor prose
writing at its best .... A trenchant book, full of beauty and vigor
and bite .... All through it is [Leopold's] deep love for a healthy
land."
The
New York Times
Book Review
"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, Leopold's tour de force combines some of the finest nature
writing since Thoreau
with an outspoken and high ethical regard for America's relationship
to the land. As the foreunner of such important books as Annie
Dillard's Pilgrim
at Tinker Creek, Edward
Abbey's Desert
Solitaire, and
Robert Finch's The
Primal Place, this
classic work remains as relevant today as it was forty years
ago."
"There is a rudeness and vigor to Leopold's
writing that goes direct to the heart of the subject - to the heart
of the reader .... one of the seminal works of the environmental
movement."
The
Boston Globe
"One
of the most beautiful, heart-warming, and important nature Books to
appear in years."
The
Chicago Tribune
"We
may count ourselves lucky to have this final testament of a man who
was not only an expert in forestry, ecology, and game management, but
an exceptionally sensitive and subtle appreciator and communicator."
Commonweal
"We
can place this book on the shelf that holds the writings of Thoreau
and John Muir."
The
San Francisco Chronicle
Aldo Leopold, long a member of the National Wildlife Federation, Conservation Hall of Fame, was posthumously honored in 1978 with the John Burroughs Medal in tribute to a lifetime of work in conservation and, in particular, for A Sand County Almanac.
Robert Finch is the author of The Primal Place and Common Ground & A Naturalist'.s Cape Cod.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Leopold,
Aldo, 1886-1948. A Sand County Almanac, and sketches here and
there.
1. Natural history—Outdoor books.2. Nature
conservation—United states.
3.
Natural history—outdoor books. 1. Title.
Q1181. L56 1987
508.73 87-22015
ISBN
0-19-505305 2
ISBN 0-19-505928-X (PBK.)
First published in 1949
by Oxford University Press, lnc., 200 Madison Avenue, New York, New
York 10016
Special commemorative edition first issued as an Oxford
University Press paperback, 1989
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