The Long-Shadowed Forest

by Helen Hoover

A beloved naturalist's guide to the northern wilderness around her remote cabin. Helen Hoover is one of those rare writers who can describe the natural world warmly, intimately, and affectionately without being in the least sentimental or childish. Paul Gruchow In 1954, Helen Hoover and her husband Adrian left their careers and the big-city life of Chicago to live in a small cabin in the north woods that border Minnesota and Canada. Living without electricity, telephone, or a car, the Hoovers became part of the environment, peacefully coexisting with their wild neighbors. The Long-Shadowed Forest is the amazing record of the Hoovers' relationship with deer, mice, birds, squirrels, moose, and other creatures of the forest. First published in 1963, these stories of daily life in the woods and vivid descriptions of a fascinating variety of plants and animals delighted readers for years and have an enduring popularity.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Biography

284 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 1980

About the author

Helen Hoover (January 20, 1910-July 1984) studied chemistry, and though she never earned her degree, she worked as a metallurgist for Ahlberg Bearing Company during and after World War II. Hoover grew up in Ohio but later moved to Chicago with her family, which is where she met her husband, Adrian Hoover. Both Helen and Adrian held steady jobs when they decided to quit and move to their vacation cabin on the south shore of Minnesota’s Gunflint Lake.

With no steady income, the Hoovers struggled through their first Minnesota winter, and Helen began writing magazine articles. Her first book, The Long-Shadowed Forest, which recounted life in northern Minnesota, was published in 1963. She followed it with three more books inspired by the Gunflint Trail: The Gift of the Deer, A Place in the Woods, and The Years of the Forest, as well as a children’s book The Great Wolf and Good Woodsmen.

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the final Helen Hoover book to be reviewed, and I'm frankly sad to leave her wilderness Eden until the next future re-read.

The Long-Shadowed Forest is different in scope from Hoover's previous books (A Place in the Woods, The Years of the Forest and The Gift of the Deer), all three of which described Helen and Ade Hoover's life and nature observations while living in the Minnesota wilderness during the 1950's-early 1970's. Rather, this offering reads more like a primer, as Helen briefly but beautifully describes all manner of nature she comes into contact with- whether it is a lowly slime mold or her beloved deer. In Helen's eyes, the natural world didn't have heros and villians. She was just as willing to feed, observe and enjoy the hawk as she was to do the same with the hawk's dinner entree, the chipmunk.

I'd say that if you are at all interested in picking up any of Helen Hoover's books, save this one for last, as it's more instructional and less personal in scope.

[LPK · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never met an author that makes the discussion of lichen interesting, until reading Helen Hoover.

This book functions as a field guide/prose version of the life of the forest, through the seasons, and as touched and influenced by Helen and her husband, Ade. It is an excellent discussion of habitat, vegetation, and animal life among the north woods.

[Carmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not written as a narrative, like The Gift of the Deer, so even though I am quite interested in the subject matter (trees, birds, animals, etc. of northern Minnesota), it was a bit of a slog at times without a story arc (though there are vignette stories scattered within the chapters). Hoover is a close observer of natural phenomena, and I enjoyed learning more about the north woods and its inhabitants. However (there is usually a "however" in my reading), her tone in this book is at times self righteous and a bit condescending. I cringe whenever she talks about feeding wild creatures graham crackers...perhaps unfair of me. That she loved animals and learned much about them and their ways of living, I do not question, but Hoover did have some real blind spots—especially when it came to hand-feeding wild animals. This practice is clearly for her benefit and her gratification on some level, and not to the benefit of the animals, who would be better off keeping their distance from humans. Nor does she ask the question (in the book, at least) as to whether this could have any harmful effects on the animals themselves. Wildlife lovers, there is your caveat.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love to read natural history, but I thought this was only OK. I was alternately engaged and put off by the way the author and her husband tame the animals they encounter - not to make pets of them, but hand-feeding them and the like. It was written over 50 years ago, so the different perspective on nature, conservation, how to write about indigenous people (who make one or two brief appearances as weather experts) are all interesting. Another reader mentioned that this was not Hoover's best book, so I'd be open to reading others.

[Karla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Helen Hoover and another book I didn't want to put down.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlike Hoover's later book, 'A Place in the Woods', this one doesn't feature the Hoovers' life in their cabin; the focus is purely on the wildlife that surrounds them. Each chapter is devoted to a specific wildlife topic, such as the weather, water creatures, the land hunters, hibernating mammals etc. Hoover is an accurate observer and her portraits of the various creatures which surround her are engaging and endearing, but just manage to avoid anthropomorphism.

This is not a book for someone who likes a story or plenty of action. Nor is it a book to read in one sitting - at least, I didn't find it so. I read a couple of chapters a day, enjoying Hoover's vivid descriptions of her wildlife encounters - she even manages to make slime mould sound interesting!

I notice a couple of other reviews criticise her for feeding the animals and birds around the cabin, but I don't feel this criticism is justified. The Hoovers' cabin was very remote, and creatures which were unafraid to be near them were still very wary of all other people, so the risk of an animal or bird being harmed by being too trusting of others would have been minimal. Regarding dependency on the Hoovers as a food source, the author was aware of this, and stated that the couple had made plans to ensure that when they left the cabin, it was in the height of summer, where other food was plentiful, so that the wildlife had plenty of time to adjust to the empty feeding stations before the onset of winter.

Hoover closes her book with some words which have even greater resonance today than when she first wrote them: "Now he [man] has learned to control his environment, and this is leading him to lose sight of activity that is not man-induced or man-controlled. He thinks of himself as a creator instead of a user, and this delusion is robbing him, not only of his natural heritage, but perhaps of his future...When we poison and bulldoze and pollute, let us remember that we are not the owners of the earth, but its dependents..."