Calling Wild Places Home: A Memoir in Essays

by Laura Waterman

"This is some of the finest writing in Laura Waterman's long and distinguished career. Anyone who values the history of conservation, or the gnarled wilds of the Northeast, or the complexities of the human spirit will find nourishment in these pages." -- Bill McKibben, author of Wandering Home

"In this new book, Laura Waterman tells the full story of her unique life. It began on the campus of a boy's school and took her to mountains, growing her own food, and writing. In these pages, readers find what it's like to grow up the daughter of the scholar who put the dashes back into Emily Dickinson's poetry; how Waterman coped with that brilliant father's alcoholism; her development as a groundbreaking climber; and her homesteading life for almost three decades. In these pages she reveals how she kept her strong sense of self while living with a dynamic, lovable, and often challenging man, her late husband, Guy Waterman. She examines closely her role in his suicide on Mount Lafayette in 2000." -- Christine Woodside, editor of Appalachia and the author of Libertarians on the Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, and the Making of the Little House Books

Genres: Nature

322 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 2024

About the author

Laura Waterman grew up in New Jersey. Her father, Emily Dickinson scholar, Thomas H. Johnson, taught at the Lawrenceville School. Laura graduated from Hollins University in 1962 with a major in English. 

For the decade of the Sixties, she was an editor in book publishing in New York City.  In 1969 she began climbing and met Guy Waterman, a speechwriter, formerly on Capitol Hill. The couple were married in l972, and in l973, moved to Vermont to establish an off-the-grid homestead.

For the next nearly 30 years, Laura and Guy collaboratively wrote books about mountain ethics and stewardship, subjects that grew out of their own climbing life. Those titles include The Green Guide to Low-Impact Hiking and Camping (formerly titled Backwoods Ethics) and Wilderness Ethics: Preserving the Spirit of Wildness. They also penned two books on the social and trail building history of the Northeast's mountain ranges: Forest and Crag and Yankee Rock & Ice. Their collection, A Fine Kind of Madness: Mountain Adventures Tall and True was a posthumous publication for Guy who died in 2000. 

Guy's choice to take his own life steered Laura to write Losing the Garden: The Story of a Marriage, a memoir about their homesteading, writing, and climbing years, and Laura's attempt to understand her own role in her husband's decision. The book was  selected as an Editor's Pick by the Boston Globe. 

Most recently Laura has published a novel, Starvation Shore, about the Lt. Greely Arctic Expedition (1881-1884). Laura, and posthumously Guy, were awarded the David Brower Conservation Award from the American Alpine Club in 2012, and Laura, in 2019, was inducted into the AAC's Hall of Mountaineering Excellence. 

Guy's death prompted Laura and friends to found the Waterman Fund that works to conserve the alpine areas of northeastern North America. Learn more at: watermanfund.org.
Visit Laura's website: laurawaterman.com

Reviews

[TL Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not generally a big fan of essay collections, and this didn't change that. Some were good, some were ok, a couple did nothing for me. But it lacks a cohesive order or theme that would have raised it higher for me. I think this would be best for you if you have read and enjoyed the other books are already knew the life details of the Watermans and so wanted to delve deeper in understanding. As is it was like starting a story in the middle.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Waterman writes beautifully - whether about the mountains in which she lives, growing vegetables and flowers in her new home, even about the death by suicide of her husband, Guy. In this book she deepens her understanding of his death 20 years ago, the subject of a previous book. Although she obviously grieves his death, the book is not permeated with sadness.