Aldo Leopold's Odyssey, Tenth Anniversary Edition

More than a biography, this articulate volume is a guide to the intellectual growth of conservationist Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) and an inspirational resource for anyone pondering the relationships between people and the land.

Julianne Lutz Warren is an ecological thinker, scholarly and creative writer, and engaged community member. Her book Aldo Leopold’s Odyssey is an intellectual biography of twentieth-century cultural critic, conservationist, and author of the best-seller, A Sand County Almanac. Warren’s biography unfolds Leopold’s journey toward his vision of land health—that is, toward modern ethical-ecological human practices of living interdependently with plants, soils, waters, and other animals in mutually beneficial ways.

Schooled by Leopold’s work and holding a PhD in wildlife ecology and conservation biology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Warren has continued to explore ways to bring land health forward into the twenty-first century embracing Earth health. In her more recent imaginative writings, in her classrooms at New York University, and in public presentations across the country, Warren knits the land health concept with global climate justice, the need for fresh insights into utopian ideals, and what it means to take responsibility for the good of life across generations.

At NYU, Warren received a 2013 Martin Luther King, Jr. Faculty Research Award for her climate justice work with students in and out of the classroom. She participated with them enthusiastically in the wide-spreading fossil fuel divestment and new economies movement. Her current book project, the first part of a triptych contemplating loss, origins, and dreams, is titled Echoes: Learning a Dead Birdsong. In it she invites readers to join her in a listening quest to fathom what remains in the recorded voice of an extinct bird imitated in the voice of an old man.