Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work

Ch. 21: Finale (1947-1948)

21 Finale (1947-1948) THE ALCOHOL block that Leopold received in May I947 wore off over the summer. The tic spasms returned and finally became painful beyond the point of tolerance. On August I9, Leopold matterof -factly wrote to the Mayo Clinic to arrange a date for surgery. Dr. Alfred Adson, a neurosurgeon at the clinic, scheduled an appointment for a month later. In the interval Leopold was confined to bed. Dan Thompson , one of his graduate assistants, had to begin the Advanced Game Management course without him. Leopold took advantage of the wait to draw together the loose ends of "Great Possessions." Young Estella, home from her Delta summer, took advantage of her father's incapacity in her own way. Here was a rare opportunity to speak with him heart to heart. Normally, he was too active or too reticent to pin down in deep conversation. The mood, however, was appropriate. To Estella, he seemed bored and depressed lying in his bed, and eager to talk. She cheered him up by recounting the highlights of her summer at Delta, presenting an enthusiastic travelogue of the canoe trip that she and Nina had taken to Clandeboye Bay. As they talked, Estella saw her chance finally to find out what was going on inside her father's mind. She veered the conversation toward religion , a subject about which he still never spoke. Estella asked him point blank whether he believed in God. "He replied that he believed there was a mystical supreme power that guided the Universe," Estella recalled. "But to him this power was not a personalized God. It was more akin to the laws of nature. He thought organized religion was all right for many people , but he did not partake of it himself, having left that behind him a long time ago. His religion came from nature, he said." Luna gave a similar assessment of his father's spiritual beliefs. "I think he, like many of the rest of us, was kind of pantheistic. The organization of the universe was Finale enough to take the place of God, if you like. He certainly didn't believe in a personal God, as far as I can tell. But the wonders of nature were, of course, objects of admiration and satisfaction to him."l Prior to the operation, Leopold travelled to St. Louis to speak at a testimonial dinner for E. Sydney Stephens, a friend since his game survey days and the preeminent figure in Missouri's enterprising conservation program. While there, Leopold met with Charlie Schwartz, an illustrator working for the Missouri Conservation Commission. Over the years, Schwartz had become acquainted with three of the Leopold children-Starker, Luna, and Nina. Earlier in the year, Luna had suggested that Schwartz would be a good choice as illustrator for "Great Possessions." Luna approached Schwartz with the idea, and Charlie agreed to give it a try. Aldo sent along a copy of the essays in anticipation of their meeting. They spent a day together discussing the manuscript. Aldo was impressed with Schwartz's ideas ("he really knows what it is all about") and agreed to provide additional articles and photographs for him to work with. Leopold returned briefly to Madison, and attended the monthly meeting of the Conservation Commission.2 He did not inform anyone at the office of his planned surgery, but simply left for Rochester without even leaving instructions on what to do in his absence. He was admitted to St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester on September 19. Estella joined her husband on the twenty-fifth. Dr. Adson performed the delicate surgery two days later. An opening was cut into Leopold's skull near his left ear. The hole had to be large enough to allow the use of surgical instruments within the skull cavity. The brain was then lifted to expose the trigeminal nerve. The afflicted portion of the nerve was severed, rendering the receptors in the brain insensible. The skull fragment was replaced and the hole sutured shut. 3 Two days after the operation, Leopold felt well enough to dictate a long letter of instructions to Bob McCabe, and reported that he was "coming out of my operation fine." Although he was weakened, and the left side of his face now registered no feeling, his convalescence at the hospital took only one week, during which time he made a number of new friends. He discussed books with his nurse and invited one of his doctors to...