Living With Wildness: An Alaskan Odyssey

In 1974, twenty-four-year-old Bill Sherwonit stepped into a whole new life—deep in the Alaska wild. In this engaging essay collection, Sherwonit now recollects his adventures and trials of his more than thirty years in the Alaska wilderness.

 

From the streets of Anchorage to wildlife preserves where wolves and bears freely roam, Sherwonit has witnessed the collision of man and nature firsthand in the untamed climes of Alaska.  Living with Wildness constructs a continuum of “wildness” with Sherwonit’s lyrical writings, as he recounts intimate moments with the songbirds fluttering around his home birdfeeder and the halibut on his fishing line, as well as exciting experiences, including his close encounter with a grizzly bear and the breathtaking views of the Northern Lights in the remote North. Sherwonit discusses the cultural idea of the “wild man” and meditates on his own efforts to spiritually connect with nature, noting that “Wilderness is a place. Wildness, on the other hand, is a quality, a state of being.”

 

A compellingly intimate and mesmerizing narrative, Living with Wildness reveals how we can engage with nature and access the wildness in our own selves.