Finding Everett Ruess
The Life and Unsolved Disappearance of a Legendary Wilderness Explorer
Broadway, July 2011
FINDING EVERETT RUESS, with a foreword by Jon Krakauer, is the definitive biography of the artist, writer, and eloquent celebrator of the wilderness whose bold solo explorations of the American West and mysterious disappearance in the Utah desert at age 20 have earned him a large and devoted cult following. More than 75 years after his vanishing, Ruess stirs the kinds of passion and speculation accorded such legendary doomed American adventurers as Into the Wild’s Chris McCandless and Amelia Earhart.
In this definitive account of Ruess’s extraordinary life and the enigma of his vanishing, David Roberts eloquently captures Ruess’s tragic genius and ongoing fascination.
“A well-researched, readable look at a complex personality in wilderness exploration.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“Everett Lives! If not in a desert canyon, then at least among the pages where David Roberts brings the young man’s life and legend all together: his writings and art, his kinship with nature, his love for adventure and beauty, and the yet-evolving mystery of his disappearance. Today I am simply one among many inspired by a young adventurer who lived in beauty and left us too soon. May we never stop wandering.”
—Aron Ralston, author of BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE