Welcoming Renny Russell and ON THE LOOSE

Renny is the co-author with his brother Terry of ON THE LOOSE, released by David Brower and Sierra Club Books in 1967, when Renny and Terry were teenagers.

ON THE LOOSE went on to sell more than a million copies and today is considered a defining text of the modern environmental movement. Beyond that, it is an absolutely fun read, capturing the exuberance of two young men–just boys, really–reveling in America’s public lands.

Renny let me thumb (verrrry carefully!) through the original handmade and bound copy of the book he and Terry created back home in the Bay Area after their youthful travels across the Southwest. Terry hand-calligraphied every word in it, and Renny heat-pressed its original photos into place in the UC Berkeley art shop.

Renny’s 2007 memoir ROCK ME ON THE WATER is excellent as well. A master river-running dory builder, he graciously accepted the copy of CANYONLANDS CARNAGE, my whitewater murder mystery, that I pressed into his hands.

Thanks, Renny!