Listening Point Foundation, Inc.

Sixty-five years ago today, Alfred Knopf published Sigurd Olson's first book, "The Singing Wilderness." Knopf was taking a chance, and it quickly paid off as the book made the New York Times bestseller list. For Sigurd--and for so many of us whose lives have been touched by him--it was a tremendous blessing. Here's what I concluded in my biography of him:

"On a personal level, the publication and success of 'The Singing Wilderness' was an immensely satisfying culmination of a long and hard-fought dream. For thirty years Sigurd Olson had been obsessed with writing, had felt it was his ordained mission in life, that success was his destiny. The odds often had seemed insurmountable: the kind of writing he was best at and loved most editors said had no market, and the kind that editors said was marketable yielded scathing rejection letters when Sigurd attempted it. He had felt trapped in an unfulfilling career, stuck in a community full of people who could not relate to him intellectually, and had sealed off his deepest beliefs, thoughts, and fears from his own family. Succumbing to periods of despair, he had bewildered his wife and damaged his health. He could not explain these things. He had not wanted to make life hard for Elizabeth or for their children or for himself. His dream went beyond want; it was a fire burning within him, a consuming flame that had the potential to fulfill or destroy him. Somehow, despite the many rejections, despite the self-torture--despite the genuinely long odds of succeeding as a writer of essays--he had held fast to his dream, and had triumphed."

Monday was the 60th Anniversary of the publishing of Sig's third book, "The Lonely Land." Nothing like a 500 mile canoe trip through the vast Canadian wilderness!