Helen Hoover left her successful career as a metallurgist in Chicago in 1954 to move to the deep woods of the Gunflint Trail. Though unprepared for the harsh conditions and the seclusion, Hoover and her partner found personal and professional success in Northern Minnesota.
"I don't think they really knew what they were getting into," says David Hakensen author of the new book Her Place in the Woods: The Life of Helen Hoover. "The romantic idea of leaving the big city and going and living in the woods and communing with nature and animals - this was certainly something they wanted to do." The ill-prepared couple made the move and got a big wake-up call during their first winter. After many hardships, the two eventually found a routine with their life in the woods as well as a professional foothold with art and writing.
Hakensen first became aware of Hoover after reading her book A Place in the Woods. "That's the first book of hers that I read," says Hakensen. "I was captivated by it." In his account of Hoover's life, Hakensen begins with her childhood of affluence; a luxury that ended when her father lost almost everything in the stock market crash. Undeterred, Hoover's tenacity led her to Chicago where she found both love and professional scientific success.
Her Place in the Woods can be found at most bookstores and via the University of Minnesota Press website. Hakensen will be speaking during a free event at the Kathryn A. Martin Library on the University of Minnesota campus on Thursday, September 18th at 7pm.
Minnesota Reads is produced at The North 103.3 with funding provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
