A Sand County Almanac
Outdoor Essays & Reflections
Aldo Leopold
Oxford University Press 1949
Sauk County, Wisconsin is the setting of A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold. This book was published posthumously in 1949, a year after the authors death. On his blank page he captures from natures palette the fields, the marsh, the mountains and sky of the front yard of his summer shack along the Wisconsin River bank.
Aldo Leopold an American ecologist, forester and environmentalist is considered one of the founders of the Conservation movement in America. Sand County Almanac has been in print for sixty plus years which assures his position as a writer as well.
The book is a collection of essays about the land and animals that surround this Wisconsin farm. We are invited to walk with him through the months as he describes in an elegant style the land he truly loves. Leopold’s message is clear that there is a human duty to preserve as much wild land as possible.
A few of the essays regarding Wisconsin are titled: Sky Dance, Smoky Gold, and Pines above the Snow. The second half of the book takes us further afield with these titles: Red Legs Kicking, Thinking Like a Mountain, and The Green Lagoons.
I offer a quote, “my earliest impressions of wildlife and its pursuit retain a vivid sharpness of form, color, and atmosphere that half a century of professional wildlife experience has failed to obliterate or improve upon.”
An example of his prose:
“The mountain in summer had as many moods as there were days and weather; the dullest rider, as well as his horse, felt these moods to the marrow of his bones.”
You can’t ask much more from a book.
A Sand County Almanac is worth the read.