In his new book “Was It Worth It?” Doug Peacock, loner, iconoclast, environmentalist, and contemporary of Edward Abbey, reflects on a life lived in the wild, recounting adventures both close to home (grizzlies in Yellowstone and jaguars in the high Sonoran Desert) and farther afield (tigers in Siberia, jaguars again in Belize, spirit bears in the wilds of British Columbia, all the amazing birds of the Galapagos). And he tries to understand and explain his perspective on Nature: That wilderness is the only thing left worth saving.
Author, Vietnam veteran, filmmaker and naturalist Doug Peacock has published widely on wilderness issues: from grizzly bears to buffalo, from the Sierra Madres of the Sonoran Desert to the fjords of British Columbia, from the tigers of Siberia to the blue sheep of Nepal. Peacock was a Green Beret medic and the real-life model for Edward Abbey's George Washington Hayduke in The Monkey Wrench Gang. Peacock was granted an Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the Academy of Arts and Letters in 2022.