Sigurd Olson is the best nature writer I know. Books like The Singing Wilderness and Runes of the North have fed my imagination with lakes, rivers, and forests while between camping trips. In The Hidden Forest, Olson teamed up with photographer Les Blacklock to illuminate the boreal forest of Northern Minnesota.

What makes Sigurd Olson’s writing so special is his curious eye for detail. “Only by looking closely can we begin to understand and appreciate the intimate interrelationship of all living things to one another and to the earth” (7). In four chapters titled Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, Olson and Blacklock illuminate the details of forest life.

A warning: this book will make you want to go outside. Heed the call!

Olson, Sigurd F., and Les Blacklock. The Hidden Forest. Penguin, 1969.