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Title details for The Names of the Stars by Pete Fromm - Available

The Names of the Stars

A Life in the Wilds

by Pete Fromm
ebook
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"Finely tuned reflections" from an award-winning author "on [a] small but fully inhabited piece of the backwoods make this an adventure worth savoring" (Kirkus Reviews).
At twenty years old, Pete Fromm heard of a job babysitting salmon eggs, seven winter months alone in a tent in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. Leaping at this chance to be a mountain man, with no experience in the wilds, he left the world. Thirteen years later, he published his beloved memoir of that winter, Indian Creek Chronicles.
Twenty five years later, he was asked to return to the wilderness to babysit more fish eggs. But no longer a footloose twenty year old, at forty-five, he was the father of two young sons. He left again, alone, straight into the heart of Montana's Bob Marshall wilderness, walking a daily ten mile loop to his fish eggs through deer and elk and the highest density of grizzly bears in the lower forty-eight states.
The Names of the Stars is not only a story of a trek through the wilderness but also an account of how an impulsive kid transformed into a father without losing his love for the wilds. From loon calls echoing across Northwood lakes to the grim realities of life guarding in the Nevada desert, through the isolation of Indian Creek and years spent running the Snake and Rio Grande as a river ranger, Pete seeks out the source of this passion for wildness, as well as explores fatherhood and mortality and all the costs and risks and rewards of life lived on its own terms.
"Inspiring." —Jim Lynch, author of Before the Wind
"A coming-of-age book for adults; it is a tightrope walk between holding on to who you are and letting go a little for something you love even more." —Kenyon Review

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 2, 2024

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781250101693
      • File size: 1070 KB

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781250101693
      • File size: 1628 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      July 1, 2016
      A middle-aged novelist and creative-writing teacher spends a month in the wilderness keeping an eye on baby fish for the National Forest Service and reliving his earlier experiences in the wild.When Fromm (If Not for This, 2014, etc.) heard that he was a candidate to monitor the development of grayling eggs in the Bob Marshall Wilderness of Montana in May and June of 2004, he thought it would be a perfect opportunity to introduce his sons, then 9 and 6, to the wilderness he loves so much. The Forest Service, not surprisingly, vetoed this suggestion, so he ended up on his own, his only human contact brief radio calls to his supervisors a couple of times per week. Fromm had plenty of nonhuman company, however, as he made his daily 10-mile round trip on foot, often through the nearly freezing rain, to check on the progress of the fish. A herd of elk grazed in the field outside his cabin, coyotes howled in the mountains, and he caught more than one glimpse of grizzly and black bears as he made his way down the path. To make sure that they knew he was there, he loudly sang the songs that he used to put his boys to sleep, including "The Noble Duke of York" and "Big Rock Candy Mountain." The author alternates lovingly observed scenes from the month in the mountains with equally vivid chapters about the time he spent in his early 20s as a river ranger. While physical danger plays a part in the story, with bear attacks always a possibility, the author keeps the emphasis on internal conflict as he tries to reconcile his longing to be with his boys with the love of solitude and nature he hasn't been able to indulge so thoroughly for years. Fromm's finely tuned reflections on this small but fully inhabited piece of the backwoods make this an adventure worth savoring.

      COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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