As the Twig Is Bent: A Memoir

by Wallace B Grange, Joseph L. Breitenstein (Editor), Richard P. Thiel (Editor)

Wallace Byron Grange (1905–87) was an influential conservationist who worked alongside Aldo Leopold. Grange’s story vividly describes his mostly idyllic childhood watching bird life in the once grand prairies just west of Chicago. He documents his family’s journey and pioneering struggle to operate a farm on the logged cutover country in northern Wisconsin, a land that provided him with abundant opportunities to study the lives of wild creatures he loved most.

Written when Grange was in his sixties, As the Twig Is Bent conveys how a leading conservationist was formed through his early relationship to nature. In beautifully composed vignettes, he details encounters both profound and minute, from the white-footed mice attracted by cookie crumbs in his boyhood clubhouse to the sounds of great horned owls echoing through the wintry woods. As he develops his own understanding of the natural world, he comes to an awareness of the dramatic and devastating role of humankind on ecosystems. Grange’s poignant observations still resonate today amid global conversations about the fate of our natural resources and climate change.

344 pages, Hardcover

Published September 15, 2020

Reviews

[Rozanna Lilley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The publisher accidentally sent me this book; I was meant to be getting a complimentary copy of something else. I was advised to pulp it but I read it instead. It's a rather sweet account of the early life of a man who, it seems, simply couldn't have been anything other than a conservationist and a naturalist. I liked the sedateness of the book and the understated account of his life-long romance with his wife. It is a little dull in parts but there are also extraordinary stories and it gives the reader a real sense of what life in Wisconsin was like in the first half of the 20th century - sly grog and snow hares for dinner. There is also a terrifying story of Grange being hooded, strung up a tree and beaten with sticks for a perceived misdemeanour at primary school. Following on from the last sentence, this may seem unlikely but, overall, the memoir gave me a strong sense of peace as though I were out watching bird migrations and trekking through bogs & pine forests. I'm glad I didn't dispose of it.

[Elva Paulson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wallace Grange was a friend of my parents, a fellow biologist -- someone I knew when I was growing up, and someone I'd dearly like to sit down and talk with now. I anticipated a book about his working career, but instead this book was a fascinating glimpse of life during his childhood. I learned a great deal about early life in northern Wisconsin and the evolution of who he became to be. I enjoyed the book throughly. We should all have had to walk ten miles of railroad track to attend high school!

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this book on WPR chapter-a-day, but I found out at the end of the 5 hour recording that it was only chapter 4 of the printed book, the 5 year portion of his life spent near Crane, WI. I enjoyed it and I think I'd like to read the rest of the story at some point.

[Elizabeth]

Chapter a day. Missed most of it and never caught up.