Aldo Leopold was born in Iowa in 1887. He was the author of A Sand County Almanac and was posthumously awarded the John Burroughs Medal in 1978 for his lifetime achievement. At the time of his death he was an advisor on conservation for the United Nations.

To those who know the grace of Aldo Leopold's writing in A Sand County Almanac, this posthumous collection from his journals and essays will be a new delight. These daily journal entries on hunting, fishing and exploring, written in camp during his many field trips in lower California, New Mexico, Canada, and Wisconsin, indicate the source of Leopold's ideas on land ethics found in his longer essays. The excerpts from these journals - many taken from notes written around a camp fire, spattered with a slapped mosquito or a drop of coffee - show in direct context what he did in his own leisure time. The essays are taken from more contemplative notes which were still in manuscript when Leopold died, fighting a grass fire in 1948. Round River has been edited by Leopold's son, Luna, a geologist well-known in the field of conservation. It is also illustrated throughout with line drawings by Charles W. Schwartz. All admirers of Leopold's work - indeed, all lovers of nature - will find this book richly rewarding.