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Conservationist Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) is revered for his gorgeous prose, deep appreciation for the beauty and "rightness" of the living world, and profound moral sense of how we should live on the land. But the story of how this Yale-educated midwesterner become one of the nation's first professional foresters and a groundbreaking environmental educator, and developed his commonsensical "land ethic," has not been fully studied until now. Ecologist Newton offers not a biography but, rather, an exacting chronicle of Leopold's intellectual and professional odyssey. Leopold conceived of the land as "a fountain of energy" flowing through soil (soil conversation was a primary mission), plants, waterways, animals (Leopold was an avid hunter and the nation's leading wildlife expert), and humans. He knew that to sustain "land health" we needed to develop an "ecological conscience" and fend off the "industrial juggernaut." Newton's compelling and elucidating close reading of Leopold's keystone works greatly enhances our understanding of his scientific rigor, philosophical valor, and abiding sense of wonder. If only we would take his conservation ethic to heart. Donna Seaman
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Review

"Though Julianne Lutz Newton''s new book about Aldo Leopold is described as a biography, it is much more than that...Aldo Leopold''s Odyssey fits Leopold into the larger tradition of American environmentalism, and shows him to be an essential part of its development... an invaluable look into Leopold''s personal and professional life."  (Matt Low Isle )

“In Aldo Leopold’s Odyssey, her new study of Leopold’s intellectual evolution, Julianne Lutz Newton makes us feel the loss of what might have followed A Sand County Almanac by showing us in authoritative detail what led up to it. The result is a biography of ideas, a map of how far Leopold had moved between 1909…and his death…” (The New York Times Book Review )