Of Time and Place

by Sigurd F. Olson

Of Time and Place is a legacy from one of the best-loved woodsman writers of our time. To the outdoorsmen who often canoed and portaged with him through the northern Lake country, Sigurd Olson was affectionately known as the Bourgeois—the name that voyageurs gave two hundred years ago to the trusted guides who took them over this same territory. And in this, his last book, completed just before his death in early 1982, Olson is our guide through his wide-ranging memories of a lifetime dedicated to the preservation of the wilderness, especially of his beloved Quetico-Superior country.

He recalls his many friendships of trail and woods and portage, his favorite campsites, the stories behind the artifacts and mementos hanging in his cabin at Listening Point. He muses on the fragile beauty of the prairies, on the significance of ancient trails, on the resonance and the origins of place names. Whether he is remembering the day when he caught his first brook trout, or admiring the playful grace of the otter, or pondering the earth’s great cycles of climatic change, these moving and evocative essays reaffirm Audubon magazine’s celebration of Sigurd Olson as “the poetic voice of the modern wilderness movement.”

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Essays, Environment

164 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 12, 1982

About the author

Sigurd F. Olson was an American author, environmentalist, and advocate for the protection of wilderness. For more than thirty years, he served as a wilderness guide in the lakes and forests of the Quetico-Superior country of northern Minnesota and northeastern Ontario. He was known honorifically as the Bourgeois — a term the voyageurs of old used of their trusted leaders.

Reviews

[Jeanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sigurd Olson is my go-to author when I need to get 'Up North', but can't get away. He writes beautifully of places I love.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

I try to read these pensive books. I think, "let me reflect upon wilderness", but WTF My wilderness and Sigurd's are very different. Mine is filled with distance highways and empty Mountain Dew bottles. His was filled with natural sounds and mountain dew.

[T.R. Ormond · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun read. I'm planning to read all of Sigurd F. Olson's prose. I didn't realize I was starting with his last book when I picked up Of Time and Place. It will be interesting to read backwards.

In many ways, his writing is quite dated, especially with regards to the indigenous people of this continent. He constantly refers to them all as "Indians" and does not make any effort to distinguish between the different nations or linguistic groups. Published in 1982, I am prepared to forgive him for this, but, of course, I would not extend the same generosity to anyone writing today.

I also felt some misgivings over his romanticization of the voyageurs, though I think this is a knee-jerk response on my part. Maybe I'm just jealous that I don't get to roam like the voyageurs did (and Olson did).

Overall, his attitude towards ecology is correct and still holds true. Most important is his implicit idea that we will preserve the land if we learn to value it. And the best way to do that, according to him, is to experience it directly, love it, and create memories and intimate connections to it. He writes "of time and place" because that is how we experience the world -- memories amount to time as a value (rather than as a basic measure), and places amount to space as a value (again, rather than as something to be measured and sold as real estate). Some might call this approach homocentric. It places too much emphasis on human consciousness in the face of nature. To this I can only say -- yes it is true that the world is indifferent to our joys and our pains, but, since I am a human, I am necessarily interested in how human consciousness works in nature (and I would bet the same holds true for you too).

[Gary Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the last of Sigurd F. Olson's works, published in 1982. He would pass later that year while snowshoeing near his home in Ely, Minnesota. He continued to write even to the day of his death. The lines "A new adventure is awaiting, and I know it will be a good one" were found in his typewriter in his writing shed after his death was discovered.

This is was on my mind as I read the book, but this eternal optimism seemed to me lost in this book. Instead, is seemed that the reflections in each of these short chapters were from a man looking back on his life in the wilderness rather than one headed for new adventures. Compared to the writing in his other books, this one lacks the sharp focus and depth of development the other volumes had. I have read and reread all Sigurd's books many times over the years since I first met him and his wife Elizabeth in Ely in the late 1970s. I have reread them all again this year, and again, reading them thrilled me, helping me recall similar adventures and insights from my own wilderness travel adventures.

Reading this book mostly made me sad. Perhaps so because I am considering passing on my canoe, gear, and maps onto younger adventurers. Still, I hold out hope that I can once again paddle and portage in the boundary waters. Maybe with a guide or a younger crew to help me, I can still manage the portages and rigors of tent camping in the wilderness. My mind is not willing to give up on that adventure - I know it would be a good one - even if my aging body makes it unlikely.

[David Backes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think people who have already read and love Sigurd's other works will like this one, but it isn't as good and I wouldn't recommend making it your first Olson book. As his biographer, I should point out that he wrote this final book when his health was in steep decline, and it shows in his writing. The essays are much shorter than usual, and he doesn't dig below the surface for deeper meanings as often as in his other books. It's a nostalgic book, in many ways, which I think will add to the enjoyment of readers who are very familiar with him, but might make newcomers wonder why he was considered one of the best-loved nature writers of his time. He died a couple of months before the book came out.

[Karen J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both dated and timely--dated because the ways in which Olson was able to experience the environment are becoming increasingly unavailable to us and timely because his call for a "land ethic" is needed more than ever. Thoughtful writing that does take one to a "time and place" is the reason that I gave this five stars.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the last book Sigurd Olson published before his death. It is a gentle musing on many of the times and places he has experienced. His absolute love, deep respect and knowledge of the natural world is beautifully expressed. It felt like a good bye to it all and a tribute to all of those times and places and people that had enriched his full life.

[Henry Kline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more a collection of 37 Vignettes of out door life than chapters with a plan. By the half way point way I was about to stop but it turned that the second half was much more interesting to me.

[Mark Schultz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essays by the great Minnesota environmentalist, protector and describer of the Boundary Waters.