Rooted in the North
The Lives and Lore of Twenty Minnesota Nature Writers
Will be published approx. on 22. December 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-5179-1869-9 (ISBN)
Description
Discover unforgettable writers who taught Minnesota how to see its wild heart
In this engaging collection, environmental journalist Mark Neuzil revives the voices that showed generations how to appreciate Minnesota's wild places. Comprising twenty vivid biographical essays, Rooted in the North traces the lives and lore of writers who shaped our understanding of this great state, from Minnesota's northwoods to its tallgrass prairies to the storied landscape of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Readers will encounter towering figures of conservation such as Sigurd F. Olson, whose spiritual vision of wilderness helped define the modern environmental movement, alongside beloved chroniclers like Florence Page Jaques and Helen Hoover, whose intimate portraits of wildlife still resonate decades later. Neuzil also highlights writers Charles Eastman and Maude Kegg, who share insights into their Indigenous childhoods, and once-popular authors like Charles Hallock and George Leonard Herter, restoring them to their rightful place in the state's literary heritage. Rooted in the North broadens our definition of "nature writer" to include novelists whose fiction grew from close observation of the land. Writers such as Martha Ostenso, Frederick Manfred, and Gary Paulsen appear here not just as storytellers but as keen interpreters of Minnesota's natural world.
In what began as a popular series for the Minnesota Star Tribune, these essays explore the philosophy, science, adventure, faith, and everyday oddities that enlivened their subjects. The result is the only book of its kind - an illuminating portrait of the voices that helped us define and fall in love with Minnesota's natural landscapes.
Retail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly with images accompanied by short alt text and/or extended descriptions.
In this engaging collection, environmental journalist Mark Neuzil revives the voices that showed generations how to appreciate Minnesota's wild places. Comprising twenty vivid biographical essays, Rooted in the North traces the lives and lore of writers who shaped our understanding of this great state, from Minnesota's northwoods to its tallgrass prairies to the storied landscape of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Readers will encounter towering figures of conservation such as Sigurd F. Olson, whose spiritual vision of wilderness helped define the modern environmental movement, alongside beloved chroniclers like Florence Page Jaques and Helen Hoover, whose intimate portraits of wildlife still resonate decades later. Neuzil also highlights writers Charles Eastman and Maude Kegg, who share insights into their Indigenous childhoods, and once-popular authors like Charles Hallock and George Leonard Herter, restoring them to their rightful place in the state's literary heritage. Rooted in the North broadens our definition of "nature writer" to include novelists whose fiction grew from close observation of the land. Writers such as Martha Ostenso, Frederick Manfred, and Gary Paulsen appear here not just as storytellers but as keen interpreters of Minnesota's natural world.
In what began as a popular series for the Minnesota Star Tribune, these essays explore the philosophy, science, adventure, faith, and everyday oddities that enlivened their subjects. The result is the only book of its kind - an illuminating portrait of the voices that helped us define and fall in love with Minnesota's natural landscapes.
Retail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly with images accompanied by short alt text and/or extended descriptions.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Minnesota
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
30 black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
255 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5179-1869-9 (9781517918699)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Mark Neuzil is a journalist and professor emeritus at the University of St. Thomas. He is author or coauthor of several books, including Views on the Mississippi: The Photographs of Henry Peter Bosse and Canoes: A Natural History in North America, both published by the University of Minnesota Press.