In 1967, at age fifty-one, Dick Proenneke retired from a peripatetic life as a diesel mechanic, salmon fisherman, and repairman and settled in southwest Alaska, where he spent the next thirty years living intimately with the land. A master craftsman, Proenneke singlehandedly built his cabin, furniture, tools, and most everything else he needed. He also meticulously recorded his life in journals and on film, and a PBS documentary and subsequent books won him legions of fans. Proenneke appreciated that acclaim, especially for his wilderness ethos (do no harm), but he would have been most pleased with the posthumous Handcrafted Life, assembled and edited by his dear friend and fellow craftsman Monroe Robinson. Over four hundred pages and drawn almost exclusively from his journals, the book tells the story of Proenneke’s remarkable life through his tools, workmanship, and own words. “Did you ever pick very large blueberries after a summer rain, walk through a grove of cottonwoods, open like a park, and see the blue sky beyond the shimmering gold of the leaves?…The world is full of such things.”