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Everett Ruess: A Vagabond For Beauty
Everett Ruess, the young poet and artist who disappeared into the desert canyonlands of Utah in 1934, has become widely known posthumously as the spokesman for the spirit of the high desert. Many have been inspired by his intense search for adventure, leaving behind the amenities of a comfortable life. His search for ultimate beauty and oneness with nature is chronicled in this remarkable collection of letters to family and friends.
228 pages
First published September 1, 1973
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February 18, 2022
If forced to use one word on this book, fascinating comes to mind as we read the letters by Everett Reuss from the age of 16 to his disappearance as a 20-year-old in the Utah desert in 1934. This is not spoiling the book, as the author explains his disappearance in both the preface and first chapter. The author writes that Everett “…was a highly complex young man…” and that is shown by these letters that he wrote to friends and family.
Everett Ruess began his wanderings at a young age. He was 16, an age the vast majority of boys and girls have more on their minds than the determination to be an outsider and free spirit. Everett was different and he knew that. At one point he writes, “My tragedy is that I don’t fit in with any type of people.” and continues to write along the same theme periodically. His parents, especially his mother, knew this and that may have been why they never hindered him in his quest to travel.
With each letter, it became apparent that he was an artist with an eye to see Beauty. The author makes this clear from the first chapter; a chapter he aptly calls The Beauty and the Tragedy of Everett Ruess. Everett himself often wrote on his need for Beauty and his art. His Blockprints, to my untrained eye, show a depth of sharp imagination.
Everett was also an avid reader. He makes mention of many books he reads in the letters he writes. Those that have an interest in book reading could not be anything but impressed with the scope of literature that he devoured. He read many that must surely be interesting to every bibliophile, the noted such as Don Quixote, the more obscure such as The Fantastic Traveller by Maude Meagher being but one example of that. The Fantastic Traveller does not even have a Goodreads entry, but was seemingly popular in the early 1930s from what I can ascertain.
In a letter to his father, he makes mention of a book called A Short Introduction to the History of Human Stupidity by Walter B. Pitkin. The then nineteen-year-old Everett says he is "mentally stimulated" by it. He writes a few quotes that he thinks will interest his father. When he makes mention of works such as this, I find it impossible not to look up on Goodreads and other sources and just as an example, I found this link about Pitkins book for anyone that may be interested.
http://www.redwoodlibrary.org/blog/rk...
Kurt Vonnegut, I was told, mentioned this book in The Last Interview.
In the end, though, the need for the beauty of the wilderness runs deep in his letters, and this may have led to his mysterious disappearance. Even those that come into contact with him sensed his needs. Archaeologist Clay Locket made mention of Everett nearly killing himself trying to find vantage points on steep and wet cliffs just to paint a watercolour. He “…loved everything.” said Lockett, who also called him a “strange kid.” For those of us in a comfortable suburban life, being that “strange kid” maybe what the attraction of this book is all about. My good friend Gordon Wilson has a keen eye for books such as this and wrote Ruess was a wandering soul that “we can all relate to at some level.” Well said!
Highly recommended for those that like travel. https://everettruess.net/
Everett Ruess began his wanderings at a young age. He was 16, an age the vast majority of boys and girls have more on their minds than the determination to be an outsider and free spirit. Everett was different and he knew that. At one point he writes, “My tragedy is that I don’t fit in with any type of people.” and continues to write along the same theme periodically. His parents, especially his mother, knew this and that may have been why they never hindered him in his quest to travel.
With each letter, it became apparent that he was an artist with an eye to see Beauty. The author makes this clear from the first chapter; a chapter he aptly calls The Beauty and the Tragedy of Everett Ruess. Everett himself often wrote on his need for Beauty and his art. His Blockprints, to my untrained eye, show a depth of sharp imagination.
Everett was also an avid reader. He makes mention of many books he reads in the letters he writes. Those that have an interest in book reading could not be anything but impressed with the scope of literature that he devoured. He read many that must surely be interesting to every bibliophile, the noted such as Don Quixote, the more obscure such as The Fantastic Traveller by Maude Meagher being but one example of that. The Fantastic Traveller does not even have a Goodreads entry, but was seemingly popular in the early 1930s from what I can ascertain.
In a letter to his father, he makes mention of a book called A Short Introduction to the History of Human Stupidity by Walter B. Pitkin. The then nineteen-year-old Everett says he is "mentally stimulated" by it. He writes a few quotes that he thinks will interest his father. When he makes mention of works such as this, I find it impossible not to look up on Goodreads and other sources and just as an example, I found this link about Pitkins book for anyone that may be interested.
http://www.redwoodlibrary.org/blog/rk...
Kurt Vonnegut, I was told, mentioned this book in The Last Interview.
In the end, though, the need for the beauty of the wilderness runs deep in his letters, and this may have led to his mysterious disappearance. Even those that come into contact with him sensed his needs. Archaeologist Clay Locket made mention of Everett nearly killing himself trying to find vantage points on steep and wet cliffs just to paint a watercolour. He “…loved everything.” said Lockett, who also called him a “strange kid.” For those of us in a comfortable suburban life, being that “strange kid” maybe what the attraction of this book is all about. My good friend Gordon Wilson has a keen eye for books such as this and wrote Ruess was a wandering soul that “we can all relate to at some level.” Well said!
Highly recommended for those that like travel. https://everettruess.net/
April 21, 2012
This is a hard book to sum up in a few words. Fascinating and compelling, yes; heartbreaking, often; hair-raising sometimes; exasperating, occasionally. Mostly, it is a vivid reminder of what it is to be still very young, naive, and adventuresome. It's also a book that's very hard to put down.
The reader, of course, knows from the start that Everett Ruess disappears at the age of 21 while on a walkabout somewhere near the Colorado River, in the remote 1930s wilderness of southern Utah. Gifted, bright, and almost painfully sensitive, he writes letters home that are sweetly poignant, thoughtful, opinionated, and rapturously descriptive of the natural environment he loves. Starting at the age of 16, while still a high school student in Hollywood, California, he journeys to Carmel, Arizona, and the Sierras. Leaving UCLA after one unhappy semester, he returns to the Four Corners region of Arizona and drifts northward into Utah where he follows the Escalante down to the Colorado and then vanishes.
A lover of classical music, a reader of books, poet, writer, water colorist, and block print maker, he considers himself very much a misfit in a world of conformity, where people live lives of quiet desperation, pursuing material goals that make them unhappy and unfulfilled. Torn between his desire for companionship and his love of wilderness solitude, he appreciates warm and welcoming company wherever he happens upon it, and seeks it out when he can, sometimes introducing himself to established artists, such as photographers Edward Weston and Ansel Adams. During visits to the home of painter Maynard Dixon, in San Francisco, he is befriended and photographed by Dixon's wife, Dorothea Lange. One of these photographs eventually appears in a missing persons report in a publication of the Los Angeles Police Department.
It's easy to go on and on about this book. The letters provide such a rich psychological portrait of this young man, full of interesting contradictions and curious prophecies of his eventual fate. Meanwhile, there is the mystery of his disappearance and the various theories and speculation about what may have happened to him, which are also included by the book's author.
I am happy to recommend this book to anyone interested in the West, stories about coming of age and self-reliance, rhapsodic descriptions of nature, personal adventures, the desert, Native Americans, and unsolved mysteries. As companion volumes, I'd also suggest Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire" and Eliot Porter's excellent collection of photographs, "The Place No One Knew: Glen Canyon on the Colorado."
The reader, of course, knows from the start that Everett Ruess disappears at the age of 21 while on a walkabout somewhere near the Colorado River, in the remote 1930s wilderness of southern Utah. Gifted, bright, and almost painfully sensitive, he writes letters home that are sweetly poignant, thoughtful, opinionated, and rapturously descriptive of the natural environment he loves. Starting at the age of 16, while still a high school student in Hollywood, California, he journeys to Carmel, Arizona, and the Sierras. Leaving UCLA after one unhappy semester, he returns to the Four Corners region of Arizona and drifts northward into Utah where he follows the Escalante down to the Colorado and then vanishes.
A lover of classical music, a reader of books, poet, writer, water colorist, and block print maker, he considers himself very much a misfit in a world of conformity, where people live lives of quiet desperation, pursuing material goals that make them unhappy and unfulfilled. Torn between his desire for companionship and his love of wilderness solitude, he appreciates warm and welcoming company wherever he happens upon it, and seeks it out when he can, sometimes introducing himself to established artists, such as photographers Edward Weston and Ansel Adams. During visits to the home of painter Maynard Dixon, in San Francisco, he is befriended and photographed by Dixon's wife, Dorothea Lange. One of these photographs eventually appears in a missing persons report in a publication of the Los Angeles Police Department.
It's easy to go on and on about this book. The letters provide such a rich psychological portrait of this young man, full of interesting contradictions and curious prophecies of his eventual fate. Meanwhile, there is the mystery of his disappearance and the various theories and speculation about what may have happened to him, which are also included by the book's author.
I am happy to recommend this book to anyone interested in the West, stories about coming of age and self-reliance, rhapsodic descriptions of nature, personal adventures, the desert, Native Americans, and unsolved mysteries. As companion volumes, I'd also suggest Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire" and Eliot Porter's excellent collection of photographs, "The Place No One Knew: Glen Canyon on the Colorado."
January 8, 2017
Read years ago and something made it come to mind today. A wonderful and heartbreaking collection of letters written by a young artist wandering the Southwest.
Merged review:
As I was reading Into the Wild, I kept thinking how much Chris McCandless' story reminded me of this biography about Everett Ruess. No surprise when Into the Wild had a whole chapter about that very same comparison. I loved this story, especially reading all the letters Everett wrote during his time traveling around the Southwest in the 1930's. Both books truly touched some part of me that yearns to leave all the trappings of our consumerist society behind. I thought anyone who read this would understand how I felt, but I distinctly remember Rick surprising me with his non-interest in the book. (He doesn't even remember reading it now).
Merged review:
As I was reading Into the Wild, I kept thinking how much Chris McCandless' story reminded me of this biography about Everett Ruess. No surprise when Into the Wild had a whole chapter about that very same comparison. I loved this story, especially reading all the letters Everett wrote during his time traveling around the Southwest in the 1930's. Both books truly touched some part of me that yearns to leave all the trappings of our consumerist society behind. I thought anyone who read this would understand how I felt, but I distinctly remember Rick surprising me with his non-interest in the book. (He doesn't even remember reading it now).
May 6, 2016
Reading Everett's letters puts you right back in the restless questioning that we often face around age 20: where am I going? What kind of people do I enjoy being around? How do I want to spend my time and energy, and what are the forces that inspire me most to do so? His musings put me right back in that era of life, showcasing the naivety of youth, the struggle to find a place and people that make one feel at home, and the harsh questioning of the forces that shape a life. As such, reading the letters is an experience that ranges from exasperating to nostalgic to thought-provoking. In Everett's case, however, this is tempered by that fact his letters are written far more eloquently than I ever could have hoped to write at that age, and the backdrop of his wanderings are far wilder and awe-inspiring than the suburban environment of my late teenage years. Reading his letters are like walking and chatting with him on a long desert walk.
An equally important component of this book is the essays that explore Everett's disappearance and the search to find him; the fact that he vanished in one of the most rugged and remote parts of the country and was never uncovered seems mysterious and unnerving in our comfortable age of GPS and forensics technology. If reading Everett's letters are like walking with him, then these concluding essays are like a window into an wilder and more sparsely populated period of the American West.
An equally important component of this book is the essays that explore Everett's disappearance and the search to find him; the fact that he vanished in one of the most rugged and remote parts of the country and was never uncovered seems mysterious and unnerving in our comfortable age of GPS and forensics technology. If reading Everett's letters are like walking with him, then these concluding essays are like a window into an wilder and more sparsely populated period of the American West.
February 2, 2019
"Beauty is an ultimate fulfillment, as is Goodness, as is Truth. These are ends in themselves and are for the sake of life. Many things are worthwhile that are not enduring. Eternity is just made of todays. Glorify the hour."
--Advice from Everett Ruess's father (123)
"Live gaily, live deeply, and wrest from life some of its infinite possibilities."
--Everett Ruess (155)
For anyone who enjoyed Into the Wild, this book (referenced by Jon Krakauer) is a must-read. Like McCandless, Ruess abandons society in favor of becoming a wanderer, but that is where similarity between the two ends. Where McCandless's journey seems as much about running away from things as toward something, Ruess's journey is different. He is seeking beauty, not running away from unhappiness. Artistic and intelligent, Ruess was born 1914 and raised by his painter-mother, and poet/minister-father. Extraordinarily sensitive, Ruess seeks fulfillment in tramping through the unexplored vastness of the West, and while many parents would discourage this, Ruess's parents support him. A Vagabond for Beauty details Ruess's story in his own words, through excerpts from letters and journals, with Rusho providing only such information as is needed to tie all together. The work sings when Ruess does the talking; after his disappearance, the life goes out of the book. I missed his voice, which points to a bigger loss: What might Ruess have become had he lived? I'm sorry we will never know.
--Advice from Everett Ruess's father (123)
"Live gaily, live deeply, and wrest from life some of its infinite possibilities."
--Everett Ruess (155)
For anyone who enjoyed Into the Wild, this book (referenced by Jon Krakauer) is a must-read. Like McCandless, Ruess abandons society in favor of becoming a wanderer, but that is where similarity between the two ends. Where McCandless's journey seems as much about running away from things as toward something, Ruess's journey is different. He is seeking beauty, not running away from unhappiness. Artistic and intelligent, Ruess was born 1914 and raised by his painter-mother, and poet/minister-father. Extraordinarily sensitive, Ruess seeks fulfillment in tramping through the unexplored vastness of the West, and while many parents would discourage this, Ruess's parents support him. A Vagabond for Beauty details Ruess's story in his own words, through excerpts from letters and journals, with Rusho providing only such information as is needed to tie all together. The work sings when Ruess does the talking; after his disappearance, the life goes out of the book. I missed his voice, which points to a bigger loss: What might Ruess have become had he lived? I'm sorry we will never know.
June 9, 2009
I reread W. L. Rusho's Everett Ruess: Vagabond for Beauty , the letters of Ruess and the story of the various searches for him after he disappeared in 1934. This book is one of my favorites and even prompted, many years ago, a hike down into Davis Gulch to follow Ruess' last trail (as it turns out, he was miles away on the other side of the Colorado when he was murdered). His writings about and passion for the canyon country remain a testament to the strong feelings this country evokes.
March 18, 2008
A little-known gem.
September 10, 2012
i loved that this is a true account. his letters and block prints capture a pure adventurer and bohemian spirit in raw parts of the american west. this book was such a surprise to find.
January 1, 2015
One of my all time favorites
November 29, 2011
The letter between Everett & Christopher Ruess. Everett asks questions and his father reply back in a letter.
1. Is service the true end of life? No, but rather happiness through service. Only as we play our part, as a part of the whole, aware of the interrelationedness, do we really and fully live. You and I are like the right hand or the right eye or the big toe-we are grotesque when living apart.
2. Can a strong mind maintain independence and strength if it is not rooted in material independence?
Yes, as many great souls prove. They were not independent. Dependence and independence are alike harmful to the best life. No dependent or independent man can play a high part in life-but only the interdependent man. Great souls today have issued a Declaration of Human Interdependence.
3. Do all things follow the attainment of Truth? No, not unless you create a new definition of the truth. It takes all three "ideas of the reason" to define the whole of culture or to define God. He whose life is exclusively devoted to Truth, or to Goodness, or to Beauty, is a very fractional man. This age is in trouble because it has exaggerated truth-it is lopsided. There is no ultimate conflict when all three are stressed and, as Aristotle says, we "...see life sanely and see it whole."
4. Is bodily love empty or to be forgotten? No, it is a part of life. It is not all of life. I don't see that it should ever be outgrown, but it changes form; it begins animal and always remains healthily animal, but it's refined and sublimated.
5. Can one ask too much of life? Yes, many do. We should have faith in life, in cause and effect, in action and reaction. We owe much more to the past than any one of us can give to the present or to the future. It is not for us to play highway robber and hold up life. The great souls probably never ask such a question. But the greatest givers have got most from life, whether Jesus or Edison.
6. Does life have infinite potentialities? Yes, so far as we can conceive infinity. Certainly incalculable, immeasurable is the contribution and joy open to you or to me. As Tagore says, Life is immense.
7. Must pain spring from pleasure? Not always. Not equal pain from equal pleasure. Psychologically, we seem to know pleasure largely by contrast and contrast seems necessary for our minds to make distinctions. No black, no white. No high, no low.
8. Are pain and pleasure equally desirable and necessary? They are both good for us if we have the will to extract the sweet from the bitter. NO one need seek pain, he will get plenty without searching. He need not seek pleasure, he will get more if he gets it indirectly. He needs rather to go his way regardless of both pain and pleasure. Pleasure is perhaps the wrong word-joy or ecstacy may be better. Ecstacy is the highest of this family of words. IT means such happiness that we literally seem to stand outside of ourselves in exaltation.
9. Is pleasure right for all, but selfish for one? There is no sin or wrong in pleasure except it be at the cost of another soul or life, to aggrandize ourselves by the degradation of another. Selfishness is not evil, it is good, but it must be the larger and not the narrower selfishness. A man's real self includes his parents, his wife, and children, his friends, and neighbors, his countrymen, all his fellowmen. He should be selfish both at the center and at the circumference, selfish for all. I doubt that there is a real conflict, but there is a harmony. It is not beautiful for a man to sacrifice himself for his child and thus spoil his child. Parents who do not practice give and take, fairness, in this relation make pigs and tyrants out of their children. These children are not being brought up to face reality, are they?
10.Can one be happy while others are miserable? Yes, a callous man can have a callous happiness. But a noble man cannot be nobly happy while others are miserable. In that sense a man like Jesus never except for moments of rest and retreat can be happy, for he had compassion upon the multitude. Great lovers have a happiness higher than our ordinary happiness. There is a happiness in identification of oneself with others, in bearing their burdens, even their sins. Great souls are not worried much about happiness. "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" Jesus and Socrates and Lincoln were not constantly concerned about heir pleasure or their happiness.
11. Can one be fine without great sacrifice? Not the finest. For such a one has been spared great experience. Such a one has not really lived. He has just played at life. Yet he need not be maimed by sacrifice to know reality. Sacrifice is in quality as well as quantity. Sacrifice may be so great as to amputate life and may be silly or futile. There is sacrifice and sacrifice. One need not be sadist or masochist; neither are sound persons.
12. Can one make great sacrifices without submerging oneself? yes, wives of many great men, mothers of great sons, teachers of leaders, have found their lives by losing their lives. "He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it," says Jesus. You would now begin to find great things for your opening soul in a good modern version of the Gospels. Get one and read it slowly like any other book, and receptively. A seed fulfills itself by losing itself in the ground. So did the men at Thermopylae.
13. Should one submerge oneself in sacrifice? That depends. Not for the sake of sacrifice, that would be masochism. He that loseth his life for my sake, said Jesus, shall find it. So says the Great Idea or the Grand Old Cause at any time. A man should follow the gleam. He should be wise, not a fool, but a mam must sometimes be a fool for the glory of God. There are no better words in which to express the thought.
14.Does not one serve most by doing what one does best? Yes, if the world needs that or can use that service. On the other hand, it may be selfish, where it is done to please oneself solely, without regard to the needs of one's time or one's fellows. As to art, beauty, the world always needs that, but it flourishes best when one is part of a world that has found itself and is going somewhere, when art is the expression of the time.
15. Is it possible to be truly unselfish? No, because even Jesus fed his ego: a man who dies for a cause does express himself,achieve his goal, perhaps. God does not ask unselfishness in an absurd sense. Asceticism and self-mortification, and all that sort of thing, are abnormal attitudes. A man must be first a healthy animal. Then he must be more than an animal, too. He must be a human.
16. Is there any fulfillment that endures as such, besides death? I doubt if death fulfills. It seems to end but I doubt that it ends much. Not one's influence or the influence of one's work. Perhaps even the echoes of your voice may go on forever. Some instrument might pick them up years or ages hence. beauty is an ultimate fulfillment, as is Goodness, as is Truth. These are ends in themselves, and are for the sake of life. Many things are worthwhile that are not enduring. Eternity is just made of todays. Glorify the hour.
17. Is there anything perpetual besides change? Yes, the tendency to change, to unroll or evolve, and possibly the direction of change. The fact, is so, that things hold together, make sense, is perpetual. Why should we object to change? Maybe it is the essence of life.
18. Is passage from the sensual to the intellectual to the spiritual a correct progression of growth, and if so, should that growth be hastened? Why not live in all three at the same time? Why such sharp demarcations? A house has a foundation, a first story, and a second story. Why not all three at the same time? "Nor flesh helps spirit more now than spirit flesh," or the like, is a saying of Browning's. The Greeks separated flesh and spirit. We moderns tend not to do so, but to respect all parts of creation, each in its place.
ow you tell me, where did you get all these mind-twisters anyway? Love, Father (Dec. 1933)
1. Is service the true end of life? No, but rather happiness through service. Only as we play our part, as a part of the whole, aware of the interrelationedness, do we really and fully live. You and I are like the right hand or the right eye or the big toe-we are grotesque when living apart.
2. Can a strong mind maintain independence and strength if it is not rooted in material independence?
Yes, as many great souls prove. They were not independent. Dependence and independence are alike harmful to the best life. No dependent or independent man can play a high part in life-but only the interdependent man. Great souls today have issued a Declaration of Human Interdependence.
3. Do all things follow the attainment of Truth? No, not unless you create a new definition of the truth. It takes all three "ideas of the reason" to define the whole of culture or to define God. He whose life is exclusively devoted to Truth, or to Goodness, or to Beauty, is a very fractional man. This age is in trouble because it has exaggerated truth-it is lopsided. There is no ultimate conflict when all three are stressed and, as Aristotle says, we "...see life sanely and see it whole."
4. Is bodily love empty or to be forgotten? No, it is a part of life. It is not all of life. I don't see that it should ever be outgrown, but it changes form; it begins animal and always remains healthily animal, but it's refined and sublimated.
5. Can one ask too much of life? Yes, many do. We should have faith in life, in cause and effect, in action and reaction. We owe much more to the past than any one of us can give to the present or to the future. It is not for us to play highway robber and hold up life. The great souls probably never ask such a question. But the greatest givers have got most from life, whether Jesus or Edison.
6. Does life have infinite potentialities? Yes, so far as we can conceive infinity. Certainly incalculable, immeasurable is the contribution and joy open to you or to me. As Tagore says, Life is immense.
7. Must pain spring from pleasure? Not always. Not equal pain from equal pleasure. Psychologically, we seem to know pleasure largely by contrast and contrast seems necessary for our minds to make distinctions. No black, no white. No high, no low.
8. Are pain and pleasure equally desirable and necessary? They are both good for us if we have the will to extract the sweet from the bitter. NO one need seek pain, he will get plenty without searching. He need not seek pleasure, he will get more if he gets it indirectly. He needs rather to go his way regardless of both pain and pleasure. Pleasure is perhaps the wrong word-joy or ecstacy may be better. Ecstacy is the highest of this family of words. IT means such happiness that we literally seem to stand outside of ourselves in exaltation.
9. Is pleasure right for all, but selfish for one? There is no sin or wrong in pleasure except it be at the cost of another soul or life, to aggrandize ourselves by the degradation of another. Selfishness is not evil, it is good, but it must be the larger and not the narrower selfishness. A man's real self includes his parents, his wife, and children, his friends, and neighbors, his countrymen, all his fellowmen. He should be selfish both at the center and at the circumference, selfish for all. I doubt that there is a real conflict, but there is a harmony. It is not beautiful for a man to sacrifice himself for his child and thus spoil his child. Parents who do not practice give and take, fairness, in this relation make pigs and tyrants out of their children. These children are not being brought up to face reality, are they?
10.Can one be happy while others are miserable? Yes, a callous man can have a callous happiness. But a noble man cannot be nobly happy while others are miserable. In that sense a man like Jesus never except for moments of rest and retreat can be happy, for he had compassion upon the multitude. Great lovers have a happiness higher than our ordinary happiness. There is a happiness in identification of oneself with others, in bearing their burdens, even their sins. Great souls are not worried much about happiness. "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" Jesus and Socrates and Lincoln were not constantly concerned about heir pleasure or their happiness.
11. Can one be fine without great sacrifice? Not the finest. For such a one has been spared great experience. Such a one has not really lived. He has just played at life. Yet he need not be maimed by sacrifice to know reality. Sacrifice is in quality as well as quantity. Sacrifice may be so great as to amputate life and may be silly or futile. There is sacrifice and sacrifice. One need not be sadist or masochist; neither are sound persons.
12. Can one make great sacrifices without submerging oneself? yes, wives of many great men, mothers of great sons, teachers of leaders, have found their lives by losing their lives. "He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it," says Jesus. You would now begin to find great things for your opening soul in a good modern version of the Gospels. Get one and read it slowly like any other book, and receptively. A seed fulfills itself by losing itself in the ground. So did the men at Thermopylae.
13. Should one submerge oneself in sacrifice? That depends. Not for the sake of sacrifice, that would be masochism. He that loseth his life for my sake, said Jesus, shall find it. So says the Great Idea or the Grand Old Cause at any time. A man should follow the gleam. He should be wise, not a fool, but a mam must sometimes be a fool for the glory of God. There are no better words in which to express the thought.
14.Does not one serve most by doing what one does best? Yes, if the world needs that or can use that service. On the other hand, it may be selfish, where it is done to please oneself solely, without regard to the needs of one's time or one's fellows. As to art, beauty, the world always needs that, but it flourishes best when one is part of a world that has found itself and is going somewhere, when art is the expression of the time.
15. Is it possible to be truly unselfish? No, because even Jesus fed his ego: a man who dies for a cause does express himself,achieve his goal, perhaps. God does not ask unselfishness in an absurd sense. Asceticism and self-mortification, and all that sort of thing, are abnormal attitudes. A man must be first a healthy animal. Then he must be more than an animal, too. He must be a human.
16. Is there any fulfillment that endures as such, besides death? I doubt if death fulfills. It seems to end but I doubt that it ends much. Not one's influence or the influence of one's work. Perhaps even the echoes of your voice may go on forever. Some instrument might pick them up years or ages hence. beauty is an ultimate fulfillment, as is Goodness, as is Truth. These are ends in themselves, and are for the sake of life. Many things are worthwhile that are not enduring. Eternity is just made of todays. Glorify the hour.
17. Is there anything perpetual besides change? Yes, the tendency to change, to unroll or evolve, and possibly the direction of change. The fact, is so, that things hold together, make sense, is perpetual. Why should we object to change? Maybe it is the essence of life.
18. Is passage from the sensual to the intellectual to the spiritual a correct progression of growth, and if so, should that growth be hastened? Why not live in all three at the same time? Why such sharp demarcations? A house has a foundation, a first story, and a second story. Why not all three at the same time? "Nor flesh helps spirit more now than spirit flesh," or the like, is a saying of Browning's. The Greeks separated flesh and spirit. We moderns tend not to do so, but to respect all parts of creation, each in its place.
ow you tell me, where did you get all these mind-twisters anyway? Love, Father (Dec. 1933)
November 4, 2022
A gift from my bestie Callum. Definitely joins the "Wilderness-Explorer-as-Philosopher" canon that exists in a very central part of who I consider myself. Everett Ruess is an incredibly good writer, and is able to evoke the beauty of nature, particularly of my dear Southern Utah, better than anyone I have ever read. Reading this makes me desperately want to get back and experience that beauty again. I also love how honest he sounds, he is a combative, scared teenager at the end of the day, and does not attempt to hide that.
March 20, 2018
Second time reading this book. The first time, I thought I was just too young to appreciate it. I'm still missing something, I'm afraid.
February 21, 2016
"My face is set. I got to make my destiny. May many another youth be by me inspired to leave the snug safety of his rut, and follow fortune to other lands"
As I have a tendency to become overworked by irrelevant (albeit it work-related) tasks, it is nice to every now and then try to get a fresh perspective on things. Evert Ruess was a young man who decided to determine his own destiny by traveling through the wilderness of Arizona and Utah. This book is a collection of letters he wrote to the people that he was close to (mostly his brother Waldo).
Ruess has ambitions of becoming a painter and his letters show a certain literary aptitude as well. Although he is mostly accompanied by his burro on his adventures he also ends up meeting Indians as well as fellow travelers. It would seem however that Ruess often preferred solitude over the company of others.
He ask his parents to send him great works of literature such as the Magic mountain (Mann), Don Quixote etc. and always tries in his letters to explain the beauty of existence. While this often ends up either being pretentious or banal, he sometimes hits spot on:
"Beauty and peace have been with me, wherever I have gone. At night I have watched pale granite towers in the dim starlight, aspiring to the powdered sky, tremulous and dreamlike, fantastical in the melting darkness. [...] These living dreams I wish to share with you, and I want you to know that I have not forgotten. " (p. 103).
Or this one:
"Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the Arctic explorer, says that adventures are a sign of unpreparedness and incompetence. I think he is largely right, nevertheless I like adventure and enjoy taking chances when skill and fortitude play a part. If we never had any adventures, we would never know what "stuff" was in us" (p. 140)
While it never really reaches the level of high artistic expression (I was hoping for something more along the lines of Dag Hammarskjölds Markings), these expressions have an authentic feel to them which inspires me. I think that too seldom one is given time to really reflect over ones life. There is also something quite Zen-like about Ruess and his insistence of appreciating the beauty of life.
As I have a tendency to become overworked by irrelevant (albeit it work-related) tasks, it is nice to every now and then try to get a fresh perspective on things. Evert Ruess was a young man who decided to determine his own destiny by traveling through the wilderness of Arizona and Utah. This book is a collection of letters he wrote to the people that he was close to (mostly his brother Waldo).
Ruess has ambitions of becoming a painter and his letters show a certain literary aptitude as well. Although he is mostly accompanied by his burro on his adventures he also ends up meeting Indians as well as fellow travelers. It would seem however that Ruess often preferred solitude over the company of others.
He ask his parents to send him great works of literature such as the Magic mountain (Mann), Don Quixote etc. and always tries in his letters to explain the beauty of existence. While this often ends up either being pretentious or banal, he sometimes hits spot on:
"Beauty and peace have been with me, wherever I have gone. At night I have watched pale granite towers in the dim starlight, aspiring to the powdered sky, tremulous and dreamlike, fantastical in the melting darkness. [...] These living dreams I wish to share with you, and I want you to know that I have not forgotten. " (p. 103).
Or this one:
"Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the Arctic explorer, says that adventures are a sign of unpreparedness and incompetence. I think he is largely right, nevertheless I like adventure and enjoy taking chances when skill and fortitude play a part. If we never had any adventures, we would never know what "stuff" was in us" (p. 140)
While it never really reaches the level of high artistic expression (I was hoping for something more along the lines of Dag Hammarskjölds Markings), these expressions have an authentic feel to them which inspires me. I think that too seldom one is given time to really reflect over ones life. There is also something quite Zen-like about Ruess and his insistence of appreciating the beauty of life.
July 24, 2014
The letters of Ruess are straightforwardly breathtaking. His prose about nature is stilling; his passion for living incendiary. The insights of this 20-year-old lost boy are poignant and ever readable.
December 28, 2016
With thanks to Jon Krakauer for alerting me to the existence of Everett Ruess.
Ruess and McCandless are similar wandering souls that we can all relate to at some level.
Ruess and McCandless are similar wandering souls that we can all relate to at some level.
July 20, 2022
Most of this book is made up from bits of his letters. Really enjoyed it.
October 2, 2019
The book "Into The Wild" by Jon Krakaeur, made me feel enamored by the spirit of the young Everett Ruess, who left home at the tender age of 15, to search for something deeper within himself. This depth, he chose to find by exploring the canyon country - Utah. His Nature Writings have been deep and spiritual. So were his letters which forms most part of this book. He had evolved much too quickly and was wise beyond his years.
Everett wrote a song a Pledge to the Wind. So the fact that he mysteriously vanished in the canyons of Utah, only makes me want to fantasize that he somehow became one with the wind.
Somehow, these two books gave me the big dream of having my own Odyssey. Little did I know it would be to America. During my travels, I think I witnessed and savored every place, in a newly embraced way — wondering what would the spirit of Christopher McCandless and Everett Ruess have to teach me. My learnings evolved me. The first time I witnessed an aerial view of Utah canyons and the mighty Colorado, I was overwhelmed, because I knew these people have been there. It was like a dream come true.
I remember when I was in New York, staring into the oblivion, by the Hudson, my paths crossed with a man whose name I'd forgotten until now — Zachary Winestine, director of "The States of Control." He asked me what brought me to America, and though I answered my study visit, the conversation somehow deepened and I got to speak about Everett. He was surprised that an Indian would mention his name, when most Americans don't seem to know anything about him. I was quite thrilled to have this encounter with Zachary.
All three of us had been drawn closer to Nature at our respective ages, only to be put on our own inner, spiritual journeys.
I think it's hard to fully understand the core of these two people, unless you've embarked on a similar inner odyssey or unless you're really thrill by their risky albeit brave adventures, without knowing everything about survivalism beforehand but learning along the way.
Everett wasn't as complicated a personality but to be a teenager and yet, be so mature, detached and yet so sensitive, is something that would not have got the opportunity of being fully understood by anybody else. When others his age were developing social skills with daily interactions with peers, he was on the road exploring new territories — both inner and outer. What made him exceptional was his incredible independent streak and an incredible sensitivity for nature and it's beauty — an awareness few ever have during their whole life. Secondly, he developed, most likely from his Mother, an amazing ability to communicate on paper his emotions. There is no doubt in my mind if he would have lived till at least middle age, he would have been a very successful writer of nature and his travels and would have perpetuated this fascination with the outdoors through written word as well as lectures.
His weakness might have been being too naive, and traveling alone in very rugged territories. He needed a partner at least and better yet a teacher who had knowledge and experience of this kind of life. Yet, Everett was a brave kid.
He saw and appreciated the outdoors more in 3 years than most do in a lifetime. By doing so at such a young age, he gave up developing social skills and this haunted him. He was learning about this deficiency towards the end when he said that he had traveled 3 years and still had not found true happiness.
The saying no man is an island is true wisdom, and the aloneness caused some sadness. He mentioned several times the beauty was almost too much to bear, and that he had no one to share it with.
It would suffice to say that Everett couldn't escape being a troubled self, despite his bold and empowering adventures. Perhaps, this unspeakable void in him could have been filled by a companion, of any sorts.
He asked his father some very philosophical questions, which his father would always answer quite well. The wisest one was when Everett asked his father if he thought one could reach his full potential by being totally independent of others and just working hard by himself enjoying Mother Nature. His father's answer was quite insightful. He answered with something like this:
One can live his life dependent, independent or interdependent. But the only way to get the best from life was through interdependence. I do believe in time he would have gone down that road. He felt he had gone down the path of no return, to live interdependently, even though he was just a teenager, who was highly intelligent, and was tutored well in writing by his mother.
The terrible losses of these two young men and many others documented by Krakaeur has not only helped us discover ourselves but it has saved us from walking into the reckless paths, and given us the ability to appreciate the beauty of connections and importance of love.
Everett wrote a song a Pledge to the Wind. So the fact that he mysteriously vanished in the canyons of Utah, only makes me want to fantasize that he somehow became one with the wind.
Somehow, these two books gave me the big dream of having my own Odyssey. Little did I know it would be to America. During my travels, I think I witnessed and savored every place, in a newly embraced way — wondering what would the spirit of Christopher McCandless and Everett Ruess have to teach me. My learnings evolved me. The first time I witnessed an aerial view of Utah canyons and the mighty Colorado, I was overwhelmed, because I knew these people have been there. It was like a dream come true.
I remember when I was in New York, staring into the oblivion, by the Hudson, my paths crossed with a man whose name I'd forgotten until now — Zachary Winestine, director of "The States of Control." He asked me what brought me to America, and though I answered my study visit, the conversation somehow deepened and I got to speak about Everett. He was surprised that an Indian would mention his name, when most Americans don't seem to know anything about him. I was quite thrilled to have this encounter with Zachary.
All three of us had been drawn closer to Nature at our respective ages, only to be put on our own inner, spiritual journeys.
I think it's hard to fully understand the core of these two people, unless you've embarked on a similar inner odyssey or unless you're really thrill by their risky albeit brave adventures, without knowing everything about survivalism beforehand but learning along the way.
Everett wasn't as complicated a personality but to be a teenager and yet, be so mature, detached and yet so sensitive, is something that would not have got the opportunity of being fully understood by anybody else. When others his age were developing social skills with daily interactions with peers, he was on the road exploring new territories — both inner and outer. What made him exceptional was his incredible independent streak and an incredible sensitivity for nature and it's beauty — an awareness few ever have during their whole life. Secondly, he developed, most likely from his Mother, an amazing ability to communicate on paper his emotions. There is no doubt in my mind if he would have lived till at least middle age, he would have been a very successful writer of nature and his travels and would have perpetuated this fascination with the outdoors through written word as well as lectures.
His weakness might have been being too naive, and traveling alone in very rugged territories. He needed a partner at least and better yet a teacher who had knowledge and experience of this kind of life. Yet, Everett was a brave kid.
He saw and appreciated the outdoors more in 3 years than most do in a lifetime. By doing so at such a young age, he gave up developing social skills and this haunted him. He was learning about this deficiency towards the end when he said that he had traveled 3 years and still had not found true happiness.
The saying no man is an island is true wisdom, and the aloneness caused some sadness. He mentioned several times the beauty was almost too much to bear, and that he had no one to share it with.
It would suffice to say that Everett couldn't escape being a troubled self, despite his bold and empowering adventures. Perhaps, this unspeakable void in him could have been filled by a companion, of any sorts.
He asked his father some very philosophical questions, which his father would always answer quite well. The wisest one was when Everett asked his father if he thought one could reach his full potential by being totally independent of others and just working hard by himself enjoying Mother Nature. His father's answer was quite insightful. He answered with something like this:
One can live his life dependent, independent or interdependent. But the only way to get the best from life was through interdependence. I do believe in time he would have gone down that road. He felt he had gone down the path of no return, to live interdependently, even though he was just a teenager, who was highly intelligent, and was tutored well in writing by his mother.
The terrible losses of these two young men and many others documented by Krakaeur has not only helped us discover ourselves but it has saved us from walking into the reckless paths, and given us the ability to appreciate the beauty of connections and importance of love.
August 5, 2023
Rusho wisely avoids a prolonged investigation into how Everett Ruess may have disappeared. Rusho allows Everett Ruess's letters, diary segments to speak for the young artist's vision. Rusho offers occasional, brief explanations on Ruess's journey, but never does he obtrude into the narrative offered us by Everett's letters to his parents, brother, friends. Only in the last 35 pages of the 218 page book are we given a narrative of Everett's disappearance, search for him, evidence, speculation as to what happened. The fact that it was written in '83 excludes the mistaken conclusions that his bones were found in '09 -- subsequently disproven. And later conclusions by Scott Thybony that his aclove had been found where Ruess likely died. Less about his death, this book is far, far more about Everett Ruess's vision of beauty in a wild landscape which echoes so relevant in today's climate changing world as our species hurtles toward climate Armageddon.
Subsequent books on Everett Ruess explore the possibility that Everett suffered from bi-polar disorder I, and later progression into the more severe form at the time of his death. Philip Frandlin does this in, Everett Ruess: His Short Life, Mysterious Death and Astonishing Afterlife. Frandkin, Pulitzer Prize winner, cities numerous professionals and professional organizations to support his opinion.
Why would such speculation be important? It would explain, not only Everett's disappearance, but his fanatical preference for solitude, his sense of "misfit," his unease at being with other folks for very long. It may have contributed to his sense of ecstasy at the beauty of the southwest.
Rusho, to his credit, lets Everett Ruess's view of beauty stand alone, unrelated to mental health issues. I agree with Rusho here. Everett Ruess was not writing of the beauty he found at the local street corner, but the almost mystical views he beheld among the canyons and ancient dwellings of the southwest. He hiked and rode under the stars during thunderstorms, sunsets, full moons. Surely, these are breathtaking in themselves, regardless of the beholder's mental state. And this is the contribution Rusho makes in revealing the life of of this desert wanderer who speaks to us from almost a cerntury past.
Subsequent books on Everett Ruess explore the possibility that Everett suffered from bi-polar disorder I, and later progression into the more severe form at the time of his death. Philip Frandlin does this in, Everett Ruess: His Short Life, Mysterious Death and Astonishing Afterlife. Frandkin, Pulitzer Prize winner, cities numerous professionals and professional organizations to support his opinion.
Why would such speculation be important? It would explain, not only Everett's disappearance, but his fanatical preference for solitude, his sense of "misfit," his unease at being with other folks for very long. It may have contributed to his sense of ecstasy at the beauty of the southwest.
Rusho, to his credit, lets Everett Ruess's view of beauty stand alone, unrelated to mental health issues. I agree with Rusho here. Everett Ruess was not writing of the beauty he found at the local street corner, but the almost mystical views he beheld among the canyons and ancient dwellings of the southwest. He hiked and rode under the stars during thunderstorms, sunsets, full moons. Surely, these are breathtaking in themselves, regardless of the beholder's mental state. And this is the contribution Rusho makes in revealing the life of of this desert wanderer who speaks to us from almost a cerntury past.
January 31, 2020
An intriguing story about an unusual and unique man named Everett Ruess. One of my favorite letters included in the book was a response from his father, to answer Everett's following questions:
1. Is service the true end of life?
2. Can a strong mind maintain independence and strength if it is not rooted in material independence?
3. Do all things follow the attainment of Truth?
4. Is bodily love empty or to be forgotten?
5. Can one ask too much of life?
6. Does life have infinite potentialities?
7. Must pain spring from pleasure?
8. Are pain and pleasure equally desirable and necessary?
9. Is pleasure right for all, but selfish for one?
10. Can one be happy while others are miserable?
11. Can one be fine without great sacrifice?
12. Can on make great sacrifices without submerging oneself?
13. Should on submerge oneself in sacrifice?
14. Does not one serve most by doing what one does best?
15. Is it possible to be truly unselfish?
16. Is there any fulfillment that endures as such, besides death?
17. Is there anything perpetual besides change?
18. Is passage from the sensual to the intellectual to the spiritual a correct progression of growth, and if so, should that growth be hastened?
1. Is service the true end of life?
2. Can a strong mind maintain independence and strength if it is not rooted in material independence?
3. Do all things follow the attainment of Truth?
4. Is bodily love empty or to be forgotten?
5. Can one ask too much of life?
6. Does life have infinite potentialities?
7. Must pain spring from pleasure?
8. Are pain and pleasure equally desirable and necessary?
9. Is pleasure right for all, but selfish for one?
10. Can one be happy while others are miserable?
11. Can one be fine without great sacrifice?
12. Can on make great sacrifices without submerging oneself?
13. Should on submerge oneself in sacrifice?
14. Does not one serve most by doing what one does best?
15. Is it possible to be truly unselfish?
16. Is there any fulfillment that endures as such, besides death?
17. Is there anything perpetual besides change?
18. Is passage from the sensual to the intellectual to the spiritual a correct progression of growth, and if so, should that growth be hastened?
February 1, 2022
I really enjoyed W.L. Rushlo's book "Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty." The book includes letters, artwork, diary entries and poems by Ruess, who wandered around the southwest for a few years before mysteriously disappearing in 1934. Despite a series of searches and the discovery of his burros -- in a crude corral -- Ruess (nor his diary or camp kit) was never found. He may have fallen to his death.... drowned in a river.... been murdered by Navajos or cattle rustlers or just chosen to walk away from all he knew. None of those particular theories completely seem to fit who he was or the circumstances of his disappearance. His remains may be someplace submerged in Lake Powell at this point.
Ruess was a bit like John Muir -- waxing poetic about the landscape while wandering about looking for inspiration and beauty. His letters are often lovely and evoke nice images of his surroundings. I enjoyed hearing his thoughts about the landscape and Rushlo's presentation of all the theories of Ruess' disappearance.
Ruess was a bit like John Muir -- waxing poetic about the landscape while wandering about looking for inspiration and beauty. His letters are often lovely and evoke nice images of his surroundings. I enjoyed hearing his thoughts about the landscape and Rushlo's presentation of all the theories of Ruess' disappearance.
February 25, 2021
Everett Ruess was an aspiring artist, poet, and writer who heeded the call to wander the wilderness only to disappear in the twisted and broken country of southern Utah in 1934 at the age of 20. The bulk of this volume collects the letters he wrote in chronological order. The letters mix the mundane logistics of his travels with his lyrical descriptions of the landscapes he saw. While some of his prose trends to the overly-romanticized and immature, he was gifted at transferring emotional response through words. Ruess' enthusiasm for exploration and travel is contagious, and his rejection of the worldly for the wilds where he found happiness is refreshing. His block prints interspersed with the text are lovely, and show a studied eye. The volume concludes with a narrative of the search for him and speculation as to his fate, which is an unsatisfying examination of possibilities rather than resolution.
September 2, 2021
In 1934, Everett Ruess was 19 years old and he started wandering through the Southern Utah and Arizona desert as well as northern California in the wilderness with just a couple of burros and a pack. In the introduction, he was being compared to John Muir and Edward Abbey He disappeared in the Southern Utah desert in 1934. The book is made up mostly of his letters to family and friends which was somewhat interesting and his journal filled with what he ate, whom he met, family and money which I found boring. I am preparing to go hiking in northern Arizona and the coordinators of the trip recommended reading this book. I feel his writings can’t be compared to Muir or Abbey who I describe the wilderness in a magical manner. His letters revealed that he had a wonderful relationship with his parents who pretty much let him do what he wanted. Although his disappearance has never been solved, I’m guessing that his youth led to being reckless.
July 5, 2025
To preface, I was not at all familiar with Ruess before reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. As with McCandless, I remain neutral on Ruess. I don’t despise him or find the young man legendary. As for the writing itself, I don’t find this as gripping as Into the Wild. It is apparent that Rusho did thorough research it just has a historian sort of dryer read to it. Historian versus journalist style I suppose. Still very interesting and well written. Overall, a great companion if you also enjoyed Into the Wild. I’m glad I selected this read on Ruess instead of the one by David Roberts (Krakauer’s friend). In the excerpt, I was extremely thrown off by the reference as “legendery” wilderness explorer along with other extreme claims from the author. It felt as if Roberts was part of the cult following himself that he very mentions. This is a much more neutral telling.
March 21, 2018
I loved Ruess’s description of the desert landscape, it made me want to explore every place he went. His love for his solitary wanderings is contagious. But, although he was rich in life experiences at such a young age, I got the sense of Everett’s immaturity, which really shows through his letters. He was just a boy and it is heartbreaking to think that was probably his fatal downfall. I couldn’t help but think what he could have accomplished with a longer life (artwork, perhaps a book, etc...). But who knows really, maybe he’s still out there wandering the desert and maybe he left behind everything that was important to him... he did make an impact in my life through his letters, after all!
March 16, 2019
This book tells the story of a young 20 year old man, Everett Ruess, who went missing in 1934 in the canyonlands of southern Utah, after four years of intermittent wandering around the West. Rusho tells his story primarily through the letters he wrote back to his family about his hikes and traveling with his burros, as well as wood block prints he made of the scenery. This fascinating story, that later influenced the main character of Jon Krakauer's INTO THE WILD, is told well.
April 21, 2024
Great adventures, amazing descriptions of canyon country, interesting interactions with the Navajo and Hopi people. But really it was wild to see someone pursuing something so crazy that they believed in wholeheartedly to do something so utterly different. To see him develop and grow in his writing and art. Great book can’t wait to go sleep on the desert floor soon
July 25, 2018
What a great glimpse into Ruess life and thoughts. Not being a desert explorer myself his writing and descriptions drew me to want to explore the areas he went. To see and feel what he was writing about. And through his writings and images understand the remoteness that has been lost to time.
February 20, 2021
I was surprised at how well the letters flow and tell the story of his life. Very glad I read this.
June 23, 2022
I wasn't quite as fascinated with this fella as I am Christopher McCandless. Maybe that is because John Krakauer didn't write me a story about him.
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