Rogue River Journal: A Winter Alone - Hardcover

John Daniel is a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.

Poet and essayist Daniel spent one winter in an electricity-free cabin as writer-in-residence at the Dutch Henry Homestead on Oregon's Rogue River. He planned to write one book about the experience of solitude, and another about his father, prominent labor leader Franz Daniel. Happily, the two projects merged in a work that anchors the history of the American labor movement to the life of a man who devoted more than 30 years to organizing labor unions, and which tells the story of the author coming-of-age during the 1960s as the son of a charismatic man and the product of a tumultuous marriage. Journal entries chronicle Franz's descent into alcoholism, as well as the author's own battles with drugs, and his refused induction into the military during the Vietnam War. As he watches winter turn to spring, the author makes peace with his deceased father--forgiving him his rages and alcoholism--and becomes more lenient toward his own, younger self in a lovely melding of memory and natural history. Rebecca Maksel
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