The Long-Shadowed Forest (Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage Book Series)

By Helen Hoover

Book Overview

A beloved naturalist's guide to the northern wilderness around her remote cabin. Helen Hoover is one of those rare writers who can describe the natural world warmly, intimately, and affectionately without being in the least sentimental or childish. Paul Gruchow In 1954, Helen Hoover and her husband Adrian left their careers and the big-city life of Chicago to live in a small cabin in the north woods that border Minnesota and Canada. Living without electricity, telephone, or a car, the Hoovers became part of the environment, peacefully coexisting with their wild neighbors. The Long-Shadowed Forest is the amazing record of the Hoovers' relationship with deer, mice, birds, squirrels, moose, and other creatures of the forest. First published in 1963, these stories of daily life in the woods and vivid descriptions of a fascinating variety of plants and animals delighted readers for years and have an enduring popularity.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816631727
• ISBN13: 9780816631728
• Release Date: April 1998
• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Length: 284 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Very, very good - but don't start with this one from Hoover

This is the final Helen Hoover book to be reviewed, and I'm frankly sad to leave her wilderness Eden until the next future re-read. The Long-Shadowed Forest is different in scope from Hoover's previous books (A Place in the Woods, The Years of the Forest and The Gift of the Deer), all three of which described Helen and Ade Hoover's life and nature observations while living in the Minnesota wilderness during the 1950's-early 1970's. Rather, this offering reads more like a primer, as Helen briefly but beautifully describes all manner of nature she comes into contact with- whether it is a lowly slime mold or her beloved deer. In Helen's eyes, the natural world didn't have heros and villians. She was just as willing to feed, observe and enjoy the hawk as she was to do the same with the hawk's dinner entree, the chipmunk. I'd say that if you are at all interested in picking up any of Helen Hoover's books, save this one for last, as it's more instructional and less personal in scope.

Helen Hoover

Her books are so wonderful. This book was so good I didn't want it to end. Everyone I've passed it on to loved it. Wish there were more.