Your favorite outdoors writer?

silenthunterstudios

silenthunterstudios

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Who is your favorite outdoors writer? Knife, gun, camping supplies reviews are fine, but I am talking about the next Nessmuk or Kephart. I enjoy reading some of the work in TK and Backwoodsman by members that post here in WSS, but really enjoy Dan Schectmans stories in Tactical Knives and Backwoodsman. I would like to see a collection of his articles. Reviews, a talk about the woods, and a little of what he believes in. Real folksy, like he is just talking around a campfire. I got a Dozier Wilderness based on one paragraph of an article he did in BW. Well, it is a Dozier ;).

I wish I would of told him the collection idea when I met him at the Chesapeake Show.
 
Tom Brown jr ( got me inspired in survival and respect for nature)
John Muir ( very inspirational and insightful, also the way he lived his life)
Theodore Roosevelt ( just liked his book of his hunting stories)
 
I had a class this semester all about Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner...both of these writers, while not exactly a Nessmuk, have some pretty powerful outdoor themes in their writing...

Many of Hemingway's stories are set in the plains of Africa, where Hemingway himself spent a fair amount of time as a professional hunter, and he also has many stories about war.

Southern rural life plays a big part in Faulkner's works, and one book in particular, "Go Down Moses," prominently features bear hunting in the Southern Backwoods.

The stories aren't really about the mechanics of survival, but they are really good writing, and therefore, reading.
 
http://australianpoems.tripod.com/banjopatersonandhenrylawsonpage.html

I was reading an old National Geographic and found an article about bush poems. really enjoyed reading them. anyone else read these?Vonda Stanley's collection of early Australian bush poems

Here is one i enjoyed

Australian Bards and Bush Reviewers

While you use your best endeavour to immortalise in verse
The gambling and the drinking which are your country’s greatest curse,
While you glorify the bully and take the spieler’s part –
You’re a clever southern writer, scarce inferior to Brett Harte.

If you sing of waving grasses when the plains are dry as bricks,
And discover shining rivers where there’s only mud and sticks;
If you picture ‘mighty forests’ where the mulga spoils the view –
You’re superior to Kendall, and ahead of Gordon too.

If you swear there’s not a country like the land that gave you birth,
And it’s sons are just the noblest and most glorious chaps on earth;
If in every girl a Venus your poetic eye discerns,
You are gracefully referred to as the ‘young Australian Burns’

But if you should find the bushmen – spite of all the poets say –
Are just common brother-sinners, and you’re quite as good as they –
You’re a drunkard, and a liar, and a cynic, and a sneak,
Your grammer’s simply awful and your intellect is weak.
 
For me it's a toss-up between Laurence Gonzales - author of Deep Survival and Bill Bryson - author of A Walk in the Woods. Both gys just have a writing style that pulls me in.
 
A friend at work told me to pick up A Walk in the Woods. Her and her husband are hardcore hikers, and it was one of her favorite books.
 
Bryson is funny. Like wet-your-pants funny. Walk in the Woods is a good read.

I thought Jack O'Connor was pretty good for tall tales about hunting.

My favorite fishing writer is John Gierach. Hands down.
 
Paddle Whispers by Douglas Wood is a good book for reflections on the woods. As I kid I devoured the book My Side of the Mountain by Jean George.
 
Oohhhh...My Side of the Mountain was one of my favorite books ever...
I also enjoyed Gary Paulsen's stuff: Hatchet, etc.
 
Yup, Gary Paulsen is good. And I can see a Bradford Angier sitting on my shelf from where I'm sitting. Great stuff!
 
Although he was not really an outdoor writer' Spirit of the border by Zane Gray is my favorite all time book. I really liked Jack O Conner and Jim Carmichael.
 
Based on how many books I own, Teddy Roosevelt has to be my #1.
I also like Cal Rutstrum a lot.

For current guys, I tend to go out of my way to read stuff by Dan Schectman, Dude McLean and Christopher Nyerges (SP?). Jeff Randall has caught my attention as well lately.
 
Marcelo Cantu said:
For me it's a toss-up between Laurence Gonzales - author of Deep Survival and Bill Bryson - author of A Walk in the Woods. Both gys just have a writing style that pulls me in.
Click to expand...

Is that the same Bill Bryson who wrote "a short history of nearly everything"? Thats a really, really good book! I think I'll find that "walk in the woods" somewhere, thanks for the tip!

My favourite outdoors writer, in addition to few Finnish authors, is Thoreau. I like "Walden" a lot, and I especially like "Walking".
 
Jack London, Norman Maclean and Bob Marshall influenced me greatly growing up. The era of roughly 1900-1940 really seems to be the golden age of wilderness writers.
Oh yeah, can't forget Ernest Hemingway.
 
John Long has written some great collections of outdoor adventure short stories. My favorite is Gorilla Monsoon. Some real sweaty palms stuff about climbing, kayaking and trecking. Krakauer's first book (Eiger Dreams) is awesome too.

Jeff
 
Tim Cahill: He used to write for Outside Magazine when it was a more interesting magazine. He has travelled the world and even drove from the tip of South America to the northernmost point of North America. His collections of stories and articles are great bathroom reading and often hilarious. Jaguars Ripped My Flesh and Pecked to Death by Ducks are great.
 
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