On the Loose is a chronicle of triumph and tragedy--the triumph of gaining an insight about oneself through an understanding of the natural world; the tragedy of seeing the splendor of that world increasingly threatened by people who don't know or don't care. The color and black-and-white photographs, all taken by the authors, capture Yosemite, Point Reyes, the High Sierra, the Great Basin, and Glen Canyon in the 1950s and 1960s. Terry Russell, the older of the two brothers who authored On the Loose, learned about wilderness early, especially about the Sierra Nevada, the Pacific shore, and the Plateau province of Colorado and Utah. He was a brilliant student at the University of California, Berkeley, and a staunch advocate of free speech there and elsewhere. He passed away in 1965 on a trip down the Green River, shortly before the original publication of On the Loose. Reeny Russell co-wrote On the Loose with his older brother Terry. His memoir about growing up with Terry, called Rock Me on the Water, is forthcoming.

On the Loose

Renny Russell

Terry Russell

Reference

Gibbs-Smith

Picking up where its predecessor—the bestselling On the Loose—left off, this reflection revisits the physical and spiritual terrain that shaped two brothers’ lives. Consumed by a passion to fully experience the western wilderness and to navigate untamed—and unpredictable—waterways, Terry and Renny Russell set out to travel down the Green River in Utah. Several miles into the journey, their raft doubles over. Terry perishes, and after washing up on the beach, Renny embarks upon what is to become a nearly four-decade-long odyssey to understand how he came to be the sole survivor and how to fully connect with his brother’s spirit. Interweaving the past and present, this vibrantly illustrated meditation documents the metamorphosis of Renny’s psyche, the natural environment that has sustained him, and ultimately his redemption.

Rock Me on the Water: A Life on the Loose

Travel

Specialty Travel

Animist Press

Rebel of the Colorado

Anamist Press

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Books by Renny Russell