“Ruby McConnell’s book is a lyrical sampler of the history of the west and its wild spirit. McConnell beautifully muses on the call of the wild, why Americans have answered it over and over again, and the dangers of the myth of wilderness. Beginning with settlers and cowboys and moving through the environmental movement, hippies, and Burning Man, this book explores what the west means and what people have found upon their arrival from pre-contact eras to modern times.”
—Tove Danovich, journalist and author of Under the Henfluence
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ruby McConnell is a writer, geologist, and environmental advocate whose award-winning work has been featured in scientific and mainstream outlets including Oregon Humanities Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and High Country News. She is author of the critically acclaimed outdoor series A Woman’s Guide to the Wild and A Girl’s Guide to the Wild. Both her personal essay collection Ground Truth: A Geologic Survey of a Life, which was a finalist for the 2020 Oregon Book Awards, and 2024’s Wilderness and the American Spirit, a critical and vibrant portrait of the American relationship to the land in Western stories, were listed as Best Reads by Ms. Magazine. Her work with Alta Journal on the story of Mouseketeer Dennis Day won an L.A Press Club Entertainment Journalism First Place Award in 2024. You can find her in the woods. @rubygonewild
