Steve Apps
Jerry Apps’ lively storytelling is anchored by exquisite attention to detail.
What’s most extraordinary about Whispers and Shadows, the new memoir from author, historian, naturalist and UW-Madison professor emeritus Jerry Apps, is that he took so long to write it.
After publishing more than 30 books about everything from barns, campfires and loon calls to circus siblings and fictional fracking, Apps finally has penned a series of succinct, stand-alone essays that explore the roots of his rural environmental influences. The essays serve as a follow up to his full-length memoir, The Quiet Season: Remembering Country Winters.
Born in the middle of the Great Depression, Apps grew up on a small, 160-acre farm in Waushara County. He attended classes in a one-room schoolhouse and immersed himself in the bustling woods located “just a few dozen steps from the kitchen door.” Today, Apps splits his time between Madison and his own farm, named Roshara, located in the state’s central sands region two miles from where he lived as an industrious boy.
In fewer than 140 pages, Apps emphasizes the value of reconnecting with nature and taking time out from a plugged-in, whirlwind world to wallow in the majesty of trees, birds, and the wind and the rain. “The land, like all living creatures, wants to be respected, honored and valued,” Apps writes. “It tries to tell us this, if only we’ll learn to listen.”
His narrative voice is immediately familiar, like that of a gentle grandfather who smells of wood smoke and wears long-sleeve shirts year-round. His lively storytelling, anchored by exquisite attention to detail, profound discovery and an obvious passion for his subject, make this a pleasure to read — even if your idea of convening with nature is mowing the lawn once a week.
Each chapter opens with a provocative quote from historic notables with connections to the UW, including ecologist Aldo Leopold, Sierra Club founder John Muir and environmentalist Sigurd Olson.
The most poignant essay is the final one, titled “Last Hunt,” in which Apps eulogizes his father, the man who instilled in his son a love for nature as broad and intense as his own. On opening day for deer hunters in 1992, Pa killed his last buck with an open-sight rifle at age 92 — a grand parting shot that ends this reflective book with a bang.
Whispers and Shadows: A Naturalist’s Memoir
By Jerry Apps, Wisconsin Historical Society Press
