Search results for ""author kim heacox""

An inspired tribute to the astonishing beauty and priceless cultural treasures of America's National Parks, National Geographic’s “The National Parks” is a lavish celebration of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. This stunning volume collects the very best of National Geographic's photographs, combined with an expertly told history: from the multi-hued layers of the Grand Canyon to the verdigris flame of the Statue of Liberty, this book presents a breathtaking panorama of the National Parks.

Read more less

A dual biography of two of the most compelling elements in the narrative of wild America, John Muir and Alaska.John Muir was a fascinating man who was many things: inventor, scientist, revolutionary, druid (a modern day Celtic priest), husband, son, father and friend, and a shining son of the Scottish Enlightenment -- both in temperament and intellect. Kim Heacox, author of The Only Kayak, bring us a story that evolves as Muir's life did, from one of outdoor adventure into one of ecological guardianship---Muir went from impassioned author to leading activist. The book is not just an engaging and dramatic profile of Muir, but an expose on glaciers, and their importance in the world today. Muir shows us how one person changed America, helped it embrace its wilderness, and in turn, gave us a better world.December 2014 will mark the 100th anniversary of Muir's death. Muir died of a broken heart, some say, when Congress voted to approve the building of Hetch Hetchy Dam in Yosemite National Park. Perhaps in the greatest piece of environmental symbolism in the U.S. in a long time, on the California ballot this November is a measure to dismantle the Hetch Hetchy Dam.Muir's legacy is that he reordered our priorities and contributed to a new scientific revolution that was picked up a generation later by Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson, and is championed today by influential writers like E.O. Wilson and Jared Diamond. Heacox will take us into how Muir changed our world, advanced the science of glaciology and popularized geology. How he got people out there. How he gave America a new vision of Alaska, and of itself.

Read more less

In this coming-of-middle-age memoir, Kim Heacox, writing in the tradition of Abbey, McPhee, and Thoreau, discovers an Alaska reborn from beneath a massive glacier, where flowers emerge from boulders, moose swim fjords, and bears cross crevasses with Homeric resolve. In such a place Heacox finds that people are reborn too, and their lives begin anew with incredible journeys, epiphanies, and successes. All in an America free of crass commercialism and overdevelopment. Braided through the larger story are tales of gold prospectors and the cabin they built sixty years ago; John Muir and his intrepid terrier, Stickeen; and a dynamic geology professor who teaches earth science "as if every day were a geological epoch." Nearly two million people come to Alaska every summer, some on large cruise ships, some in single kayaks--all in search of the last great wilderness, the Africa of America. It is exactly the America Heacox finds in this story of paradox, love, and loss.

Read more less

Finalist for the 2023 Banff Mountain Book Award for Mountain Fiction & PoetryAn Anchorage Daily News Favorite Book of 2023Kim Heacox, author of the National Outdoor Book Award-winning novel Jimmy Bluefeather, returns with a new, brilliant novel about family love and the lengths one will go to protect it."A sprawling novel brimming with suspense, ideas and unforgettable characters, On Heaven''s Hill paints a captivating group portrait of a rebel alliance discovering their true selves in America''s most glorious natural landscape. This book will appeal equally to aging idealists reared on Edward Abbey and adventurous kids hooked on Gary Paulsen. Oh, and it''s laugh-out-loud funny, too."—Mark Adams, New York Times bestselling author of Tip of the Iceberg and Turn Right at Machu Picchu"Kim Heacox poses the age-old question—what price progress?—with new urgency in On Heav

Read more less

From Kim Heacox, the acclaimed author of The Only Kayak and John Muir and the Ice That Started a Fire, comes Rhythm of the Wild, an Alaska memoir focused on Denali National Park. Music runs through every page of this book, as do stories, rivers and wolves. At its heart, Rhythm of the Wild is a love story. It begins in 1981 and ends in 2014, yet reaches beyond the arc of time. Author and mountaineer Jonathan Waterman has called Heacox “our northern Edward Abbey.” In this book we find out why. We hitchhike with Kim through Idaho, camp on the Colorado Plateau, and fly off the sand cliffs of Hangman Creek with a little terrier named Super Max, the Wonder Dog. We meet Zed, the Aborigine; Nine Fingers, the blues guitarist; and Adolph Murie, the legendary wildlife biologist, who dared to say that wolves should be protected, not persecuted. Kim also reprises in this book his friend Richard Steele, a beloved character from The Only Kayak. Some books are larger than their actual subject—this is one. Part memoir, part exploration of Denali’s inspiring natural and human history, and part conservation polemic, Rhythm of the Wild ranges from funny to provocative. It’s a celebration of—and a plea to restore and defend—the vibrant earth and our rightful place in it.

Read more less

Kim Heacox, author of the National Outdoor Book Award-winning novel Jimmy Bluefeather, returns with a new, brilliant novel about family love and the lengths one will go to protect it."A sprawling novel brimming with suspense, ideas and unforgettable characters, On Heaven's Hill paints a captivating group portrait of a rebel alliance discovering their true selves in America's most glorious natural landscape. This book will appeal equally to aging idealists reared on Edward Abbey and adventurous kids hooked on Gary Paulsen. Oh, and it's laugh-out-loud funny, too."—Mark Adams, New York Times bestselling author of Tip of the Iceberg and Turn Right at Machu Picchu"Kim Heacox poses the age-old question—what price progress?—with new urgency in On Heaven’s Hill, his compelling novel of an Alaskan hamlet whose remote location is no defense against big-money development. All that stands in its way is a pack of wolves and the twelve-year-old girl determined to save them. Reminiscent of John Nichols' The Milagro Beanfield War, Heacox deftly weaves lyrical tributes to the healing power of nature with a fast-paced plot that builds to a heart-pounding conclusion."—Gwen Florio, author of Silent Hearts and the Lola Wicks seriesThe small town of Strawberry Flats sits on a remote Alaska coast, peacefully left to itself—until controversial plans for a road and a bridge threaten to upend everything.Former trapper Salt d’Alene never thought he’d find himself in the midst of such a dispute, but he’ll do anything to provide the best care for his son Solomon, recently diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. Eleven-year-old Kes Nash just wants her father—back from war in Afghanistan—to be normal again. And circling the perimeter of the town is a wolf, Silver, and his pack, quietly watching.Told from three alternating perspectives, On Heaven’s Hill is a vividly powerful story about rediscovering hope and finding new life in the aftermath of trauma. Filled with humor and compassion, it depicts the best of America, a place composed of wildness and kindness.

Read more less