Freedom in the Wilds
An Artist in the Adirondacks, Third Edition

Edited by Rebecca Foster

Cloth $24.95    |    978-0-8156-0899-8    |    2008

Freedom in the Wilds Book Talk
by Rebecca Foster
August 17th, 2008   4pm
Keane Valley Library

Reviews
"Weston produced exquisite paintings inspired by his intense engagement with the Adirondacks, becoming along the way one of the premier American artists of his generation."
—Adirondack Explorer

"Foster’s work offers a more intimate glimpse into the passionate young man who gave up a life of privilege to rough it in the wilderness..."
—The Post Star

"Rebecca Foster’s new edition of Harold Weston’s great autobiographical meditation on nature and art is much more than a new edition. It’s the book Weston himself might have written, if he’d had time and the advantage of looking back on his life from the mountaintop. It’s a unique addition to the literature of 20th century art. With these new materials, Foster has brought to Weston’s book a context, artistic, philosophical, and biographical, that places it among the classics of American writing about the relationship between art, nature, and the deeply examined life."
—Russell Banks, author of Cloudsplitter, The Sweet Hereafter

Description
Harold Weston’s captivating account of his intimate relationship with the wilderness, Freedom in the Wilds combines an informal history of the Adirondack Mountain Reserve with his own experiences there as a painter and woodsman. He incorporates stories gathered over many years from the region’s guides and lumbermen and the wealthy visionaries seeking to preserve the wilderness.

First published in 1971, Freedom in the Wilds became a classic among Adirondack literature for its thoughtful exploration of wilderness and creativity. In this third edition, Rebecca Foster updates the original by bringing to the foreground Weston’s compelling personal story. She also adds a rich trove of Weston’s letters and journal entries, along with new illustrations, explanatory notes, and a new introduction that will give Weston’s story greater resonance with contemporary readers.

View other books on the Adirondacks

Author
Rebecca Foster is president of the Society for the Preservation of American Modernists and Harold Weston’s granddaughter and biographer. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

6 1/8 x 9 1/2, 272 pages, 68 illustrations, notes, bibliography, index