A Wild Idea

By: Jonathan Franklin

Narrated by: George Newbern

Why would a San Francisco entrepreneur sell his company, fly to the ends of the earth, invest millions restoring paradise, then fight like hell to give it all away?

In 1991, Doug Tompkins left his luxury life in San Francisco and flew 6,500 miles south to a shack in Patagonia that his friends nicknamed "Hobbit House". Mounted on wooden skids that allowed oxen to drag it through the cow fields, Hobbit House had for a refrigerator a metal box chilled from the icy cold winds off the glacier. Rainwater dripped from a rooftop barrel into the rustic kitchen. Earlier tenants include a sheepherder with little more than his dogs and a rifle. Instead of the Golden Gate Bridge, Tompkins now stared at Volcano Michinmahuida, blanketed in snow and prowled by mountain lions the size of small tigers.

Shielded by wilderness and waterfalls and tucked into a remote forest with three times the rainfall of Seattle, Tompkins plotted his counterattack against corporate capitalism. As founder of Esprit and The North Face he had “made things nobody needed”. Now he declared it was time to “pay my rent for living on this planet”. Could he undo the environmental damage produced by his prodigious clothes manufacturing? Could he launch a new brand, one that promoted environmental conservation, preservation, and restoration?

In Patagonia, Tompkins adored his pioneer existence. All his belongings fit in a single duffel bag. When hungry, he fished from his front yard and harvested vegetables from a greenhouse. Tompkins kayaked along the rivers, ice-climbed glaciers, and waited until the ocean storms reached a frothy peak to pilot his wood-hulled crab boat into the raging waves of the Pacific. Within a hundred miles there were virtually no roads and his old farm was accessible to the occasional fishing boat and a battered airstrip.

Flying his small plane for hundreds of hours, he explored. The average plot of land is 10,000 acres, and the price per acre is as little as US $25. It was all for sale and about to be destroyed by clearcut logging. Zooming over treetops and around mountain peaks, Tompkins flew inside tight canyons and gaped at the singular beauty: active volcanoes, gliding condors, forests never logged, rivers never dammed - all so undisturbed, so exquisitely designed, without a single flaw. Could he protect this wild beauty? Place a frame around this perfect creation? For the ensuing quarter century that dream, that obsession became his life.

Only in death did it become his legacy.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Jonathan Franklin (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

The details

A Hagiographic portrait of a rich environmentalist who saved millions of acres in Chile and Argentina.

One of the most important books you will ever read

If you believe in conservation this is one of the most important books you will ever read.

One of environmentalism’s most important stories

I was pleased to come across this book, as I teach about sustainability and the outdoor products industry. This slice of history and the central figures occurred right under the noses of many of us, yet has been woefully under told. Kudos to the author for his efforts. Sadly, the narrator whose voice and tone are so easy to listen to, and which add flavor to the words, occasionally fails inexplicably on common words. Ibis is pronounced “ib-is” and filet is “fill-lit”. How can produced not catch such mistakes?? Oh well. I guess it’s ironic given Tompkins’s extreme attention to detail that these human errors persist.

Great Book!

I really enjoyed this book. It’s a roller coaster of liking and disliking Doug. It makes you really want to get out there and explore. Great listen.

Brilliant

Great listen, good writing about an extraordinary man. This should be a must read for any wild land conservationists

The compassion for our trees and forests and for starting national parks all over the world

This was such a fantastic story. I’m so glad I didn’t miss it. I didn’t know when I got the book that I was in for such a great run. I would recommend this whole heartedly to everybody.

Could have been a bit shorter

Good though, overall fifteen words is a lot. Just let me press submit home. Thank

Loved!!!!

A great look back at one of the great marketers and entrepreneurs and environmentalists of our age. Deeply compelling, riveting and thoughtfully researched.

Remarkable human being

This true account of a tenacious, often intractable and arrogant man offers a glimpse into the dogged determination of that person to preserve and nourish nature's beauty. The story makes you wonder and possibly conclude that to spearhead a revolution, a green one at that, years ahead of the current sentiment to save the planet , requires someone with a rare combination of qualities and gifts. Doug Tompkins had them. Fortunately later in his life he found his second wife Chris who helped him in every way, especially in being the humanizing element. What he did for Patagonia and Chile and the conservation effort to re-wild huge swaths of land is totally remarkable. Lucky for us on this earth to have someone with his combination of love of beauty , confidence in his own opinion, and determination and of yes, money which he and his former wife made much of themselves. An amazing story. thank goodness he never gave up and neither has his wife that chose to carry on after Tompkin's death.

Spectacular in every way.

I bought this after listening to Let My People Go Surfing. Can’t say enough good things. An amazing testament to the work of Doug Tompkins.