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| A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There | 
| Author: Aldo Leopold
Creators: Charles W. Schwartz, Robert Finch
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy Used: $2.08
You Save: $32.92 (94%)
New (5) Collectible (1) from $9.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  63 reviews
Sales Rank: 251124
Format: Special Edition
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Special
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.9
ISBN: 0195053052
Dewey Decimal Number: 508.73
EAN: 9780195053050
ASIN: 0195053052
Publication Date: October 22, 1987
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Nice copy marks
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Amazon.com
Published in 1949, shortly after the author's death, A Sand County Almanac is a classic of nature writing, widely cited as one of the most influential nature books ever published. Writing from the vantage of his summer shack along the banks of the Wisconsin River, Leopold mixes essay, polemic, and memoir in his book's pages. In one famous episode, he writes of killing a female wolf early in his career as a forest ranger, coming upon his victim just as she was dying, "in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes.... I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, no wolves would mean hunters' paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view." Leopold's road-to-Damascus change of view would find its fruit some years later in his so-called land ethic, in which he held that nothing that disturbs the balance of nature is right. Much of Almanac elaborates on this basic premise, as well as on Leopold's view that it is something of a human duty to preserve as much wild land as possible, as a kind of bank for the biological future of all species. Beautifully written, quiet, and elegant, Leopold's book deserves continued study and discussion today. --Gregory McNamee
Product Description
This special edition of the highly acclaimed A Sand County Almanac commemorates the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Aldo Leopold, one of the foremost conservationists of our century. First published in 1949, it combines some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau with an outspoken and highly ethical regard for America's relationship to the land. It is a unique book, a classic work of conservation, the forefunner of such important books as Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire, and Robert Finch's The Primal Place.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 58 more reviews...
 Leaving a light footprint on the good earth May 2, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I re-read Leopold's Sand County Almanac every couple of years or so. It's not just a beautifully poetic celebration of the land. Its defense of a new sense of moral responsibility to the environment, spelled out in the book's "The Land Ethic," is a bracing tonic against the modern temptation to take the biosphere for granted. In these days of global warming, fossil fuel depletion, and escalating degradation of the land, water, and atmosphere, Leopold's 60-year-old plea for a new environmental ethic is both prophetic and urgently immediate.
In "The Land Ethic," Leopold argues for a new understanding of the moral community. Earlier ethical models focused on interpersonal and social relationships between humans. But given the interconnectedness of all members of the biosphere, we need to extend the moral community to include earth, sky, water, and all species--the biota. At least since the dawn of the modern age, human have tended to prize the biota only in terms of what we could get out of it. It had a purely economic, utilitarian value. But this way of thinking has resulted in environmental (not to mention economic and political) crisis.
What we must do now, argues Leopold, is to recognize our "vital" relationship to the biota, acknowledging that the well-being of our species is intimately connected to the well-being of the whole. This calls for a new standard of valuation that runs counter to the older, economic model. "Quit thinking about decent land-use as solely an economic problem," writes Leopold. "Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and esthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient." And if we do that, he concludes, we'll adopt the following ethical principle: "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise" (p. 262). And part of what this means is that humans should strive to leave relatively light footprints on the earth, because the lighter our impact, the more likely the biota can successfully readjust to maintain integrity, stability, and beauty.
Good, important advice.
 Sand County Almanac book January 18, 2008
The book was in great condition, at a great price! I got it within just a few days. I would def. buy from this person again.
NOT Censored. December 19, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
The earlier reviewer is wrong.The Ballantine edition is not censored.I have a Ballantine edition and there are at least three uses of the word "evolution" and the name Darwin is used at least twice.So don't let the paranoid pronouncements of an evolution worshiper stop you from enjoying this great book.All who love the outdoors and the natural world should read this classic work.
A Sand County Symphony - In Three Parts November 28, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
It's taken me awhile to get around to reading this classic, but some 50 plus years later it still pacts a powerful message. The message is pretty simple: we need an intelligent and harmonious relationship with the natural world. A land ethic which goes beyond a purely utilitarian principle and begins to walk towards the less tangible one of cooperation and esthetics. Leopold walks out on the subjective-thin-ice here, not so much armed with science, but using keen observation and a true sense of ecology (i.e., the relationship between habitat and critters).
Leopold's understanding of the natural wonders surrounding his rundown Sand County farmland, evolved way beyond his formal education and experience with the Forest Service. In fact, he doesn't seem to place a premium in education as the road to enlightenment here. I loved Leopold's take:
"A March morning is only as drab as he who walks in it without a glance skyward, ear cocked for geese. I once knew an educated lady, banded by Phi Beta Kappa, who told me that she had never heard or seen the geese that twice a year proclaim the resolving seasons to her well-insulated roof. Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth? The goose who trades his is soon a pile of feathers."
Throughout this book, it's clear that Leopold didn't trade his awareness for anything at all. Here is a man completely aware of the world he lives in and brings us along for an entire year's experience in the Sand County of Wisconsin. The second part of the book, of which the book has three, is much broader in both setting and overall perceptive. In the essay "Thinking Like a Mountain" you get Leopold's often recounted sorrow in taking the life of a wolf and his sudden understanding that hunting such a fine predator as the wolf upsets a greater balance on the mountain.
In the third part, Leopold delivers a state-of-the-union on wilderness, conservation, and American attitudes toward wild places. His words--again written over 50 years ago--ring true today as they did then. Especially powerful are his comments about the "outdoor recreation industry" and their non-stop production of new "gadgets" (i.e., checked out amazon lately?).
A Sand County Almanac is a classic and will endure the test of time - for some years to come.
A book that suits all moods November 23, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The first part of this book, the actual almanac, is best read on a bright winter morning while sipping a cup of hot coffee after a stroll in the nearby fields. These essays are short, lively and the overall mood is cheerful, they really light up one's day.
The second part of this book, "sketches here and there", is best read on a flight or a bus ride. These essays are more sobering and maybe slightly depressing, with more lamentation of what beautiful things that have been lost or being lost. They give one the perspective of the place we (the human species) have in the grand theater of natural history.
The third part of this book, "the upshot", is best read when one ponders the relationships between man and earth, progress and the environment, etc.
Or you can just read it at any other time. It is a powerful book. One only wishes that the essays, especially those in the first part, were more and longer so we had more to enjoy.
My only gripe about this book is that (as the author admits himself) the author is full of "trigger itch". Only occasionally does he have some remorse (e.g. "Think like a mountain"), but overall he delights in it. I am not saying "all hunting is bad", but for a naturalist he sure kills a lot of animals. On the other hand, at least he is honest about it.
Also, I think the Oxford "Special Commemorative Edition" is worth the money as it contains an excellent review by Robert Finch.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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