Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout

For nearly a decade the acclaimed young writer Philip Connors has spent half of each year in a 7’x7’ fire lookout tower, 10,000—feet up in a remote part of New Mexico. This is one of the most undeveloped parts of the country, the first region designated as an official wilderness area in the world, and one of the most fire—prone: each year it’s hit by lightning more than 30,000 times.

Writing with the gusto, charm, and sense of history of Ian Frazier or Tony Horwitz, Connors captures the wonder and grandeur of this most unusual job and place: the eerie pleasure of solitude; the strange dance of communion and mistrust with animals; and the majesty and might of wildfires at their wildest. Students will be fascinated by Connors’ story as they discover why lookouts are known as “freaks on the peaks.”

“Philip Connors has crafted a book illumined by the gob—smacked, wide—eyed, inquisitional wonder at creation that moves writing about the natural world into the realm of the most necessary texts. Fire Season is for pilgrims, pedestrians, hikers and anchorites, city dwellers, and solitary sorts: a treat for the senses, fit for the long haul. Bravo!”—Thomas Lynch, author of The Undertaking