Everett Ruess: His Short Life, Mysterious Death, and Astonishing Afterlife

by Philip L. Fradkin

Overview

Everett Ruess was twenty years old when he vanished into the canyonlands of southern Utah, spawning the myth of a romantic desert wanderer that survives to this day. It was 1934, and Ruess was in the fifth year of a quest to record wilderness beauty in works of art whose value was recognized by such contemporary artists as Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, and Edward Weston. From his home in Los Angeles, Ruess walked, hitchhiked, and rode burros up the California coast, along the crest of the Sierra Nevada, and into the deserts of the Southwest. In the first probing biography of Everett Ruess, acclaimed environmental historian Philip L. Fradkin goes beyond the myth to reveal the realities of Ruess’s short life and mysterious death and finds in the artist’s astonishing afterlife a lonely hero who persevered.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520265424
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	08/29/2011
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Philip L. Fradkin is the author of twelve highly praised books, including Wallace Stegner and the American West and The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906: How San Francisco Nearly Destroyed Itself, and (with Alex L. Fradkin) The Left Coast: California on the Edge, all from UC Press.

Table of Contents

I. Davis Gulch 
II. Wanderers 
III. The Legacy, 1859 – 1913 
IV. Growing Up, 1914 – 1929 
V. On the Road, 1930 
VI. Lan Rameau, 1931 
VII. The Misfit, 1932 
VIII. The Bohemian, 1933 
IX. Vanished, 1934 
X. The Search, 1935 
XI. Healing, 1936 – 2008 
XII. Resurrection, 2009 
Appendix A
Wilderness Song 
Appendix B
Father and Son Dialogue 
Acknowledgments 
Notes 
Selected Bibliography 
Index 

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The author's research shines through without bogging down the narrative, making it accessible and eminently readable."—Library Journal

"Enthralling narrative. . . . A riveting ride through one of the Southwest's enduring mysteries."—Zyzzyva

"Fradkin tries . . . to sift through the legends to get to the heart of the genuine person. . . . . Tell[s] a gripping tale of a young man consumed by the nature he so desperately loved."—National Post

Editorial Reviews

Fradkin tries . . . to sift through the legends to get to the heart of the genuine person. . . . . Tell[s] a gripping tale of a young man consumed by the nature he so desperately loved.

National Post

Fradkin tries . . . to sift through the legends to get to the heart of the genuine person. . . . . Tell[s] a gripping tale of a young man consumed by the nature he so desperately loved.

Ottawa Citizen

Enthralling narrative. . . . A riveting ride through one of the Southwest’s enduring mysteries.

Zyzzyva

An acclaimed scholar of American Western history, Fradkin (Wallace Stegner and the American West) tackles Everett Ruess, a young vagabond artist and poet who wandered in isolation throughout the West and disappeared in the southern Utah desert at age 20 in 1934. In this thorough work, Fradkin focuses on Ruess himself, including, e.g., his possible undiagnosed bipolar disorder, which led to exhilarating highs and outpourings of creativity as well as risk-taking behavior and thoughts of suicide. Questions about Ruess remain to this day—was he attacked and killed, did an accident befall him, or did he take his own life? The book follows the search for Ruess, including the 2009 incident in which a project overseen by National Geographic Adventure obtained erroneous DNA positives. Weaving in excerpts from Ruess's letters and diaries, Fradkin paints a rich portrait of a young man who was both brilliant and troubled, and whose family still deals with his loss. The author's research shines through without bogging down the narrative, making it accessible and eminently readable. VERDICT Highly recommended not just to those interested in Ruess but to a wide variety of readers from academics to armchair historians.—Crystal Goldman, San Jose St. Univ. Lib., CA

Library Journal