the dharma blog

I have a thing for books. Not just as collections of words that form a plot that tell a story that illuminate characters, but as actual physical objects. And I especially like old books, they have stories to tell that has nothing to do with the words on their pages.

So I was overjoyed to have recently won my first-ever eBay auction and get my hands on a signed first edition copy of Sigurd Olson‘s “The Lonely Land.” Olson is one of my favorite writers and a personal hero, and “The Lonely Land” is probably my favorite of his books that I’ve read (though I’m not sure it’s fair or possible to make such an evaluation).

I’m especially enamored with the book because it’s a first edition. I always think of first editions as special because this was a volume that was put out there without the author or publisher really knowing how it would be received. It was a statement of hope and no small leap of faith to publish this book, and I’m grateful that Olson and his publisher dared take it.

The third of Olson’s books, published in 1961, “The Lonely Land” tells the story of Olson and five other men canoeing six weeks down remote Canadian rivers, retracing the routes of the voyageurs, finding adventure, hardship and joy all their own. It is the story of a type of adventure I can only dream of experiencing myself someday, though reading Olson’s account brings me as close to being there as I can imagine. And, as with all of his works, the writing is poetic and the book is as much about the power of wilderness as it is about the events of the trip.

During my too-brief involvement with the nature/writing group blog “Whorled Leaves,” “The Lonely Land” was my selection for the group to read back in December 2005. It inspired a few enlightened posts over there and I have fond memories of the experience of reading and reacting to it with a group of like-minded folks.

This book won’t spend much time on my bedside table, I have a paperback edition for that. But I’m definitely looking forward to pulling it off the bookshelf occasionally to remember the story, both that of the wilderness journey of Olson and his friends, and of this little volume with the simple green cover and whatever path it has traced over that past four decades to arrive in my hands.