Laura Waterman

Laura Waterman
Born	(1939-10-10)October 10, 1939 Lawrenceville, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Author conservationist climber
Education	Hollins College
Subject	Outdoors Climbing Conservation
Notable works	Backwoods Ethics Wilderness Ethics Forest and Crag Yankee Rock & Ice A Fine Kind of Madness Losing the Garden Starvation Shore Calling Wild Places Home
Spouse	Guy Waterman (d. 2000)
Website
laurawaterman.com

Laura Waterman (born 10 October 1939) is an American author, mountaineer and ice climber, homesteader, and conservationist, primarily known for her books on the outdoors, many as a collaborative effort with her husband Guy Waterman.[1] They were early spokespersons and advocates for the hiking movement of the 1970s with their books Backwoods Ethics and Wilderness Ethics.[2][3] The Watermans' writing and advocacy are credited with giving significant impetus to the Leave No Trace program.[4][5]

Early life

Laura Waterman was born Laura Johnson in 1939 to Catherine and Thomas Herbert Johnson. Thomas Johnson was a noted teacher and scholar, particularly of Emily Dickinson, at the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. In 1962, Laura graduated from Hollins College in Virginia with a degree in English, and moved to New York City to work in publishing. She met her future husband Guy Waterman in the fall of 1969 while on a weekend climbing trip to the Shawangunk Mountains North of New York.[6]

Homesteading and Barra

In 1973, Laura and Guy Waterman purchased 27 acres in East Corinth, Vermont, to build a cabin and construct a new life far from the city, gaining inspiration from Helen and Scott Nearing’s book Living the Good Life.[7] They named their cabin Barra, for Guy's ancestral Scottish island homestead.[8]

Climbing

The move to Vermont and the adoption of the homesteading lifestyle was in large part a way to simply leave more time to climb mountains.[9] Laura went on to climb all 48 of the 4000-foot New Hampshire peaks seven times, and in 1975 made the first female free ascent of The Black Dike (WI4+, M3), a New Englands most famous ice climbing route that was described by Yvon Chouinard as "A filthy black horrendous icicle."[1]

Writing

The Watermans' devotion to the mountains of the Northeast generated two definitive mountain histories, Forest and Crag: A History of Hiking, Trail Blazing, and Adventure in the Northeast Mountains (1989), and Yankee Rock & Ice: A History of Climbing in the Northeastern United States (1993). Their last co-authored book was a collection of fiction and essays, A Fine Kind of Madness: Mountain Adventures Tall and True (2000)[10] was published a few months after Guy's death.

Waterman is the subsequent author of three other books: a memoir Losing the Garden: The Story of a Marriage (2005),[11][12] Starvation Shore, a historical novel on the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of the 1880s (2019),[13][14] and a second memoir Calling Wild Places Home: A Memoir in Essays (2024).[1]

She administers The Waterman Fund, supporting education, trail work, and research in the alpine and subalpine zones of Northeastern North America.[15]

Publications

Singly authored books

• Losing the Garden: The Story of a Marriage, Shoemaker & Hoard, 2005, ISBN 978-1593761042
• Starvation Shore, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 2019, ISBN 978-0299323400
• Calling Wild Places Home: A Memoir in Essays, SUNY Press, Albany, 2024, ISBN 978-1438496245

Coauthored books

• Forest and Crag: A History of Hiking, Trail Blazing, and Adventure in the Northeast Mountains (co-author with Guy Waterman), Excelsior Editions, 1989, ISBN 978-1438475301
• Wilderness Ethics: Preserving the Spirit of Wildness, (co-author with Guy Waterman, Countryman Press, 1993 ISBN 978-0881502565
• Yankee Rock & Ice: A History of Climbing in the Northeastern United States (co-author with Guy Waterman), Stackpole Books, 1993, ISBN 978-0811737685
• A Fine Kind of Madness: Mountain Adventures Tall and True (co-author with Guy Waterman), Mountaineers Books. 2000, ISBN 978-0898867343
• The Green Guide to Low Impact Hiking and Camping (previously Backwoods Ethics), (co-author with Guy Waterman), Countryman Press, 2016, ISBN 978-0881502572

References

1. Goodman, David (2024-03-14). "Vermont Conversation: Acclaimed Vermont author Laura Waterman reflects on her life in the mountains and her husband's death". VTDigger. Retrieved 2024-04-27.
2. Mayer, Doug (2012). Mountain Voices. Guy and Laura Waterman, Pioneers of Wilderness Ethics: Appalachian Mountain Club Books. pp. 53–66.
3. White, Emily (2021-07-01). "Mountains as Directions for Living". Adventure (2L): 64–69.
4. "Leave No Trace: How It Came to be | IJW". 11 December 2018.
5. Marion, Jeffrey L.; Reid, Scott E. (January 2001). "Development of the U.S. Leave No Trace Program: An Historical Perspective" (PDF).
6. Brown, Chip (2003). Good Morning Midnight. New York: Riverhead Books. pp. 135–137. ISBN 978-1573222365.
7. "Interview with Laura Waterman". [Vermont Conversation]. [VTDigger]. 2024-03-14. Retrieved 2024-04-27.
8. Goodman, 2024, 15:45.
9. Goodman, 2024, 19:30.
10. "AAC Publications - A Fine Kind of Madness: Mountain Adventures Tall and True".
11. "Losing the Garden: The Story of a Marriage | Wood Lit | Wood Lit". June 2005.
12. "Review of Losing the Garden". 18 August 2009.
13. "Corinth writer solo-climbs a new literary mountain". Associated Press News. 9 April 2019.
14. James, David (December 19, 2020). "Grim fate of the Greely expedition is brought to life in work of historical fiction 'Starvation Shore'". Anchorage Daily News. Retrieved 2024-04-27.
15. "Board of Directors". The Waterman Fund. Retrieved 2024-04-27.