From the pristine and towering vision of Paul Bunyan to the surly and wild images of droves of working men in remote wilderness, perceptions of lumberjacks run the full gamut.
Gentlemen of the Woods: Manhood, Myth, and the American Lumberjack by author Willa Hammitt Brown follows the history and myths of lumberjack culture, seeking to provide context to the legends of our youth.
For Brown, lumberjacks have been a long-time interest.
"My great grandparents came from Sweden to Minnesota and worked briefly in the woods, although I didn't actually learn that until later," said Brown. "I started working on lumberjacks when I was an undergraduate and I had to write a summer essay. I was off north at my grandparent's place and the closest library was the Forest History Center in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. So, I wrote a paper there and suddenly just became plagued by questions that sort of dominated my life for the next 15 years. "
Many people have a romanticized vision of lumberjacks as big, burly men camping out in the woods, chopping down trees with their bare hands. However, Brown says that this often conflicts with what they were thought of at the time, which were scary, uncouth, moral failures. The book explores the gap between public perception and factual history.
Gentlemen of the Woods can be purchased anywhere books are sold and through the University of Minnesota Press website.
Minnesota Reads is produced at The North 103.3 with funding provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
