BOOKSHELF

BOOKSHELF The Quiet Crisis and the Next Generation, by Stewart L. Udall.

Gibbs Smith, Publisher, Box 667, Layton, UT 84041. 1988. 298 pages. $18.95, hardcover, plus $2.00 postage. In 1845 Henry David Thoreau built a cabin near the 62-acre Walden Pond. There he lived and wrote for two years. His essays advocating the basic values of unaltered nature stirred a new consciousness in a nation whose people were largely dedicated to conquering nature rather than being an integral part of it. Last fall the Associated Press reported that Walden Pond, now part of a 333-acre state-owned preserve, was in danger of being surrounded by an office park and condominiums.

Last fall, too, Stewart Udall's 1963 conservation classic, The Quiet Crisis, was republished in an updated 25thanniversary edition, The Quiet Crisis and the Next Generation. It contains the complete text of the first edition and nine new chapters. In this single publication is a comprehensive history of American conservation, from the wisdom of the American Indian to 20th-century adaptations of the laws of man to the laws of nature.

A quarter-century ago, The Quiet Crisis and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring sounded a clarion call to mobilize slumbering conservationist ranks against the advancing forces of environmental destruction.

Both books met with immediate success and speeded the pace of reform. Still, Udall himself recognizes that, despite all the dynamic agencies bearing the flag of conservation and concern, government-from municipal to federal-has made embarrassingly few genuine gains in this endeavor. Perhaps this new edition will act as a timely booster shot.

A member of a pioneer Arizona family, Stewart Udall Udall was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1954. He became a member of the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee and an effective advocate for the conservation cause. President Kennedy selected Udall as his Secretary of Interior, and Lyndon Johnson kept him in that post. He is now an attorney specializing in the field of environmental law, and his extensive knowledge of history, natural history, ecology, and national resources gives the reader a perspective remarkable even among publications of this kind. In addition to providing the facts about such environmental villains as acid rain, the greenhouse effect, and air and water pollution, the author enriches the text with the strong personalities engaged in the combat. Gifford Pinchot, the father of the U.S. Forest Service, and John Muir, naturalist and champion of forest conservation, ended their friendship over differing opinions regarding timbering practices. Other gladiators of the great outdoors with now-familiar names, such as Paul Ehrlich, Aldo Leopold, and Barry Commoner, are principals in the author's text.

Both Udall's wealth of information and his writing talents contribute to the enjoyment and understanding of his book. While he passionately believes in the environmental cause, he knows that ecology is a science, and he never abandons fact for drama. This is the course Stewart L. Udall charts for the future: "The fateful challenge facing tomorrow's environmentalists is to reach across artificial barriers erected by nation states, languages, and cultures and become earth-keepers who steadfastly use their talents to nourish all causes that promote life on this planet."

Walden Pond may be the place to begin again.

The Last Grizzly and Other Southwestern Bear Stories,

edited by David E. Brown and John A. Murray. University of Arizona Press, 1230 N. Park Ave., Suite 102, Tucson, AZ 85719. 1988. 184 pages. $19.95, hardcover, plus $1.00 postage.

This anthology of 22 bear stories was compiled and edited by two well-known natural scientists, writers, and sportsmen. The collection ranges from James Ohio Pattie's 1833 report (the first Anglo account of a bear encounter in the Southwest) to John Murray's description of the death of the last Southwestern grizzly in 1979. James Ohio Pattie crossed New Mexico and Arizona in 1826-27. His published adventures suggest that he often "pulled a long bow," stretching the truth. Murray's account laments the loss of a species no longer a part of the Southwestern timberlands.

Montague Stevens, "Uncle Dick" Wootton, Frank Dobie, and Elliot Barker are among the other contributors. The reader will detect a change of attitude from Pattie and Wootton to Brown and Murray.

When the last grizzly died, a part of our region's past was lost.

(RIGHT) "A Nice Hunk of the West," by Helen Metzger Shackelford; oil on linen, 36 by 24 inches. The painting depicts the high plateau country of northeastern Arizona, with the promise of rain, endless space, and unbroken silence. The artist is represented by Buchen and Company, Phoenix, and Iman Galleries, San Angelo, Texas.

(BACK COVER) Early on an October morning, sunflowers and wild grasses display their autumn colors against the violet backdrop of the Huachuca Mountains. W. D. WRAY