Rudner, Ruth

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Rudner, Ruth

PERSONAL:

Born in Rochester, NY.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Bozeman, MT.

CAREER:

Writer, editor, journalist, wilderness guide, and naturalist.

WRITINGS:

Wandering: A Walker's Guide to the Mountain Trails of Europe, photographs by James Goldsmith, Dial Press (New York, NY), 1972.

Huts and Hikes in the Dolomites, photographs by James Goldsmith, Sierra Club Books (San Francisco, CA), 1974.

Off and Walking: A Hiker's Guide to American Places, Holt, Rinehart & Winston (New York, NY), 1977.

Forgotten Pleasures: A Guide for the Seasonal Adventurer, drawings by James Goldsmith, Penguin Books (New York, NY), 1978.

Bitterroot to Beartooth: Hiking Southwest Montana, Sierra Club Books (San Francisco, CA), 1985.

Greetings from Wisdom, Montana, Fulcrum (Golden, CO), 1989.

(With Connie Chesnel) The Rocky Mountain Cookbook, photographs by Alexandra Avakian, C.N. Potter (New York, NY), 1989.

Partings: And Other Beginnings, Continuum (New York, NY), 1993.

Walking, Human Kinetics (Champaign, IL), 1996.

A Chorus of Buffalo: Reflections on Wildlife Politics and an American Icon, Burford Books (Short Hills, NJ), 2000.

(With Charles E. Little and Jake Page) Sacred Lands of Indian America, edited by Jake Page, foreword by Charles E. Little, photographs by David Muench, Harry N. Abrams (New York, NY), 2001.

(With David Muench) Windstone: Natural Arches, Bridges, and Other Openings, Graphic Arts Books (Portland, OR), 2003.

Our National Parks, photographs by David Muench, Graphic Arts Books (Portland, OR), 2005.

Ask Now the Beasts: Our Kinship with Animals Wild and Domestic, Marlowe (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including the Wall Street Journal.

SIDELIGHTS:

Writer and editor Ruth Rudner is a naturalist and backcountry nature guide who lives and works in the Yellowstone regions of Montana. Her books focus on the wilderness issues and natural history of the American West, with a number of them dedicated to exploring and hiking Montana and elsewhere. In A Chorus of Buffalo: Reflections on Wildlife Politics and an American Icon, Rudner contemplates the history and symbolism of the bison and how it has become an archetype of the West. She considers the inevitable conflicts between ranchers, who fear their herds are deprived of grazing land by migrating buffalo and who believe the animals spread brucellosis to cattle, and environmentalists and Native Americans, who seek to preserve and encourage proliferation of bison. "She provides a fairly impartial view of the widely diverse opinions" on buffalo and their place in nature, commented Tim J. Markus in Library Journal. Rudner's work "mixes lyrical anecdotes and meditative essays to explore the buffalo's fragile existence, its uncertain future and the politics swirling around the iconic animal," noted a Publishers Weekly reviewer.

In Ask Now the Beasts: Our Kinship with Animals Wild and Domestic, Rudner offers an "eclectic collection in which past relationships with dogs, horses, cats, and birds are discussed and idealized," remarked a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Rudner considers the effect that animals have had on her life, from the emotional attachment to a pack mule, to the taming of a feral cat, to the heartbreak of the necessity of leaving a stray dog behind. She describes the primal beauty of wolves, the elegance of peregrine falcons, and the profound relationships that can develop between human and horse. Rudner "believes that connecting with animals, whether domestic or wild, is as important as connecting with people," observed a reviewer in Publishers Weekly. She demonstrates a "great deal of creativity in her astute observations" about animals both domestic and wild, noted John M. Kistler in Library Journal. Rudner "has some astonishing tales to tell," concluded the Kirkus Reviews critic.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2006, review of Ask Now the Beasts: Our Kinship with Animals Wild and Domestic, p. 338.

Library Journal, June 1, 2000, Tim J. Markus, review of A Chorus of Buffalo: Reflections on Wildlife Politics and an American Icon, p. 188; June 1, 2006, John M. Kistler, review of Ask Now the Beasts, p. 150.

Publishers Weekly, May 15, 2000, review of A Chorus of Buffalo, p. 105; March 20, 2006, review of Ask Now the Beasts, p. 45.