Anne Labastille : A Biography of the Woodswoman

Anne LaBastille: A Biography of the Woodswoman by Penny Harr tells the life story of the pioneering wildlife ecologist and author Anne LaBastille (born 1933), best known for her bestselling memoir Woodswoman, which recounted her years living alone in a hand-built cabin in New York's Adirondack Mountains.

Drawing on personal interviews and archival research, Harr, an Adirondack museum interpreter, follows LaBastille from her PhD studies at Cornell University through a career spent breaking barriers for women in conservation science, including extensive fieldwork in Guatemala to help save the endangered giant pied-billed grebe.

The book also covers LaBastille's prolific writing career, including titles such as Mama Poc and Jaguar Totem and numerous articles for National Geographic and Reader's Digest, as well as the awards she earned for her environmental advocacy, among them the World Wildlife Fund Gold Medal.

Beyond her public achievements, the biography offers an intimate look at the woman behind the legend of self-sufficient wilderness life.