This title is part of BHA's Jim Posewitz Digital Library: Required Reading for Conservationists
Doug Peacock’s collection of stories in his most recent book, Was It Worth It?, proves his obsession with and loyalty to a life lived on the edges of civilization. Peacock is a man who went further, deeper, and spent more nights in wild places than most. He was so exceptional that Edward Abbey modeled his infamous character George Hayduke on him: a character willing to fight and die for wilderness and wildlife.
After coming home from being a medic in Vietnam, Peacock found solace in wilderness settings including Glacier National Park and Yellowstone and migrated each winter to the southwest deserts. On the former grounds, he found humility and awe in being around grizzlies bears, an animal that could quickly devour humans but most often doesn’t. Peacock knows bears like only wildlife biologists can, but his knowledge isn’t gained from a textbook; it’s based on firsthand experiences in the field. He had over a thousand encounters with bears and was charged a dozen times—but the bear always veered off at the last minute. Peacock’s gripping tales lead the reader on hikes tracking jaguars and searching for the last grizzlies in Mexico’s Sierra Madre; to the polar regions of the high Arctic tracking polar bears, fantasizing about tigers in Siberia, and exploring tropical birds in the Galapagos. He is a wilderness prophet crying for visions on mountaintops and deep in the jungles. His words are a testament to a man obsessed with the natural world, words the contemporary world needs to pay heed to.
-Benjamin Polley, BHA member
Views expressed by the book authors or reviewers are solely their own and do not represent Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.
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About Zachary Williams
Backcountry Journal editor