Pioneer Conservationists of Eastern America by Peter Wild (review)

Reviews 357 an infectious personality and a self-deprecating humor. But after getting well into the work, I had to remeasure his achievement, for Wallace is an excellent naturalist and something of a poet, as well. What sets this work apart is that Wallace has an affinity not for the remote and pristine, but for “a shred of virgin forest growing alongside the busiest road” (140) or for a “hidden waterway” running “behind dikes, con­ crete walls, and nearly impenetrable second-growth vegetation” (65). These are Wallace’s “special places” where a surprising diversity of wildlife still survives. Wallace focuses upon such “nondescript” hideaways intending to awaken us to our natural heritage. He wants to demolish the idea that we need protect only designated wilderness. A characteristic line reads, “It may come as a surprise to zoo-goers and ‘Wild Kingdom’watchers that there are at least thirty-four endangered species in or near the Greater Columbus, Ohio, area” (179). With a heightened awareness of the many small though wonderful life forms that manage to live in spite of us, Wallace hopes that we will extend protection across the land and not just to the national and state parks. Wallace is also a competent historian. His twelve-page history of Alaska, for instance, is dense but very readable, as are his sketches of natural history. Writing about the beaver, Wallace draws upon records kept by the earliest trappers, notes from George Bancroft, and studies by contemporary scientists to impart a sweeping understanding of how the animal was and is viewed. That Wallace seems to owe a debt to Japanese haiku makes his factual prose even more powerful. In one chapter he tells of a trip to Japan where he decided that that nation has perhaps come closest “to making nature the center of its aesthetic” (79). If anything, this keen sense of an Oriental aesthetic gives him the ability to compress the images and metaphors that he draws from ponds, fields, and canyons. As a consequence of Wallace’s ear for poetry, his immense fund of learning ismade all the more enjoyable. RUSSELL BURROWS Utah State University Pioneer Conservationists of Eastern America. By Peter Wild. (Missoula: Mountain Press, 1986. 280 pages, $14.95.) If you didn’t know that George Perkins Marsh, author of the seminal Man and Nature, was better known in his own times as a linguist and U.S. Senator, then you probably resemble the average person interested in conser­ vation, but not entirely conversant with the movement’s history and leaders. But not to worry. Peter Wild has written a book for you. An introduction to those leaders’ lives and work, this volume complements his earlier Pioneer Conservationists of Western America. Wild traces not only the biographies of fifteen prominent eastern conser­ vationists; he also outlines the forces that led to each person’s involvement in 358 Western American Literature conservation. Most of his portraits run about fifteen pages and, given the limits of space, summarize well the following individuals’ contributions to land preservation: Marsh, Frederick Law Olmstead, Carl Schurz, John Burroughs, George Bird Grinnell, Theodore Roosevelt, William Hornaday, Benton MacKaye , Robert Marshall, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Howard Zahniser, Rachel Carson, Barry Commoner, Ralph Nader, and Amory Lovins. As Wild admits in his introduction, he is not trying to revive the Great Man Theory by focusing on personalities. He is merely writing for the person who has heard of a John Burroughs or Rachel Carson and who wants to know more about the figures behind the names. Thus, the general reader will find this careful work of journalistic research an interesting and informative read. A teacher might use the book and its bibliography of mostly secondary sources to help prepare a class. The scholar, on the other hand, will still do better to consult primarysources or books like Stephen Fox’sJohn Muir and HisLegacy. Wild does not apply a strong critical perspective to each conservationist. He mostly describes and appreciates. Still, in all, I found his book enjoyable, if for no other reason than the fact that Peter Wild writes so well. And he’s done his homework. Moreover, his introductory and concluding chapters state well the...