"This passionate work is a welcome and worthy addition to the growing canon of environmental literature." --Publishers Weekly Starred Review
"If wilderness is outlawed, only outlaws can save wilderness." Edward Abbey
In a collection of gripping stories of adventure, Doug Peacock, loner, iconoclast, environmentalist, and contemporary of Edward Abbey, reflects on a life lived in the wild, asking the question many ask in their twilight years: "Was It Worth It?"
Recounting sojourns with Abbey, but also Peter Matthiessen, Doug Tompkins, Jim Harrison, Yvon Chouinard and others, Peacock observes that what he calls "solitary walks" were the greatest currency he and his buddies ever shared. He asserts that "solitude is the deepest well I have encountered in this life," and the introspection it affords has made him who he is: a lifelong protector of the wilderness and its many awe-inspiring inhabitants.
In the tradition of Peacock's many best-selling books,Was It Worth It?is both entertaining and thought provoking. It challenges any reader to make certain that the answer to the question for their own life is "Yes!"
Table of Contents:
Was It Worth It? : A Wilderness Warrior's Long Trail Home
CONTENTS
Preface: Winter Count
The Hayduke Ancestry
Treasure in the Sierra Madre
Counting Sheep
Why I Don’t Trophy Hunt
Sheepherder Stew for Abbey
Monsoon
Headwaters
Stalking Polar Bears with Doug Tompkins
Round River Conservation Studies
Spirit Bears
Tiger Tales
Cheating Robinson Crusoe
Galapagos
Reburying the Arrowheads
Postscript: The Perfect Bait for an Outbreak
About the Author :
Author, Vietnam veteran, filmmaker and naturalist Doug Peacock has published widely on wilderness issues: from grizzly bears to buffalo, from the Sierra Madres of the Sonoran Desert to the fjords of British Columbia, from the tigers of Siberia to the blue sheep of Nepal. Peacock was a Green Beret medic and the real-life model for Edward Abbey's George Washington Hayduke inThe Monkey Wrench Gang. Peacock was granted an Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the Academy of Arts and Letters in 2022.
Review :
Publishers Weekly Starred Review: Naturalist and explorer Peacock (In the Shadow of the Sabertooth) presents a captivating retrospective on his life in the wild. Using vivid imagery, he reflects on humanity's relationship with the natural world, his tour of duty in Vietnam, living among Grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park, and, appropriately, mortality. Each memory encapsulates Peacock's profound compassion for humans and animals alike, and his deep sense of responsibility. After attending to "too much collateral damage—that cowardly phrase they apply to the pile of small, dismembered bodies after a botched air attack," as a Special Forces medic in Vietnam from 1965 to 1968, Peacock "applied the anger I had built doing that to the defense of wild things." Readers will appreciate his madcap yet reverential takes on nature; recalling a close encounter with a snake on the Missouri headwaters, he wonders, "How the hell could anyone believe humans were the center of the world when facing poisonous reptiles, grizzlies... or polar bears on equal terms and neutral turf?" While ruefully aware of the prospect of catastrophic global warming ("The beast of today is climate change"), Peacock's "heightened awareness" of the beauty of the wild never wanes. This passionate work is a welcome and worthy addition to the growing canon of environmental literature."
"So, was it worth it overall? For Peacock, rescued by wildlings from war traumas and from then on embracing conservation, the answer is a resounding “yes” — his has been “a good life full of swamps, rivers, woods, deserts, and mountains. . . . For readers craving inspiration and vicarious thrills through tales of adventures in some of the world’s last untamed, uncrowded places? Likewise. As for the lasting impact of his work for the grizzlies and other charismatic fauna which are now being decimated by heatwaves, hunting, and development? That remains to be seen. -- Earth Island Journal
"A spellbinding collection of stories and adventures." -- CFF Review
"Each of Peacock’s adventures unravels with wit, insight, and devotion. Describing a place or an event isn’t too challenging, but bringing a reader into your consciousness and taking them along for the ride is something few writers capture well. At this, Peacock is superb." -- Adventures Northwest
"Proving again why he’s a vital voice for the wild, Doug Peacock takes us there and back again with his new memoir Was It Worth It?: A Wilderness Warrior’s Long Trail Home (Patagonia, $27.95). This series of vignettes of high adventure and contemplative meanderings provides an unflinching assessment of a life lived in, and for, the wild spaces of the world. The stand-alone narratives range from a search for signs of the last grizzly in Mexico’s Sierra Madres to walking point to protect an expedition from polar bears in Canada’s High Arctic; from island hopping via kayak off the coast of Belize to repatriating arrowheads via canoe in the Shiawassee Flats, known by some as the “Michigan Everglades.” Any sharing of such episodes would make for fascinating reading, but it is Peacock’s natural grace with language that elevates this book from the crowded ground of mere adventure writing into the rarified air of literature. Peacock is mostly known as a grizzly bear expert, a monkey wrencher, an advocate for the wild, and even as a damn fine cook. But beyond all of that — or maybe because of it — he is a gifted writer of necessary and beautiful work. His recent award in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters is evidence of this, and his newly-released book is further proof." --Big Sky Journal
"While I loved the adventure stories, I was most struck by Peacock’s long-lasting friendships with many high-powered personalities– Yvon Chouinard, Jim Harrison, Ed Abbey, Rick Ridgeway, Doug Tompkins, and more. I’m fascinated by how that crew of rebellious legends fed off each other’s energy, increasing their impact both individually and collectively." -- Ed Roberson, Mountain and Prairie podcast and book reviews
About Walking It Off: “Peacock is a direct literary descendant of Thoreau, with a few genes from Audubon and his mentor, Edward Abbey… His response to the natural world is visceral, intellectual and spiritual at the same time. In this book, he writes about it beautifully, in prose that begs comparison to the best of Peter Matthiessen… His meditations on war and wilderness are painfully apt today, with America fighting new battles abroad, led by an administration that seems to be at war with wilderness at home.” —Phil Caputo, Pulitzer Prize winner for A Rumor of War
About In the Shadow of the Sabertooth: "Skillfully told by a naturalist with a distinctive approach to the many ancient mysteries that remain"
