For Earth's Sake: The Life and Times of David Brower

At age 78, Brower here reflects on more than a half century of conservation activism. Director of the Sierra Club from 1952 to 1969, he led crusades to save the Grand Canyon, national parks and wilderness areas from development; during his tenure, club membership increased from 2000 to 77,000. He founded Friends of the Earth, then Earth Island Institute. Incorporating many of his previous writings, this loosely organized autobiography includes accounts of Brower's mountaineering exploits as a young man (first ascents in Yosemite and the Sierra) and touches on his personal life. One section profiles friends and colleagues such as Ansel Adams, Rachel Carson, Eliot Porter. Conservationists will welcome the memoir, which also serves to remind us that Brower's career stands as a record of modern environmental history in America. Photos. (Apr.)