Personal Papers

Series I. Contains ideas and quotations. #6 contains also some personal material, but not overly intimate.

#1. June 7, 1969 to Jan 22, 1970
#2. Feb 1, 1970 to Nov. 19, 1970
#3. Nov 30, 1970 to May 14, 1970
#4. June 7, 1971 to Dec 6, 1972
#5. Dec 9, 1972 to Dec 9, 1974
#6. Jan 3, 1975 to May 19, 1975
#7. Dec 20, 1975 to May 3, 1997

Series II. Outdoor journal - camping out.

#1. June 8, 1972 to Aug 7, 1972
#2. Sept 8, 1972 to Oct 26, 1972
#3. Feb 10, 1974 to Aug 28, 1974
#4. June 5, 1975 to Feb 6, 1976
#5. May 18, 1977 to Jan 26, 1978
#6. June 26, 1979 to Oct 23, 1979

Series III. Outdoor journal - at cabin, but #6 and #7 contain also some camping-out experiences

#1. Dec 1, 1971 to April 22, 1972
#2. April 27, 1972 to Oct 1, 1972
#3. Oct 2, 1972 to Nov 4, 1972
#4. June 24, 1973 to May 28, 1974
#5. May 31, 1974 to Sept 14, 1975
#6. Sept 14, 1975 to Feb 25, 1977
#7. Feb 28, 1977 to April 22, 1978
#8. Jan 25, 1980 to May 18, 1980

Series IV. Outdoor stuff at cabin mixed with highly personal stuff.

#1. June 9, 1979 to June 22, 1979

Series V. Personal experiences, outdoor or city; ideas and quotations; coded stuff (code probably breakable).

#1 June 22, 1980 to Jan 16, 1984

Series VI. Highly personal stuff. #4 also contains ideas and quotations.

#1. Sept 20, 1972 to Nov 12, 1972
#2. July 17, 1978 to Aug 23, 1978
#3. Letters of Aug 25, 1978 and Sept. 2, 1978
#4. Aug 29, 1978 to May 8, 1979
#5. Jan 6, 1975 to March 30, 1975

Series VII. Outdoor experiences, ideas and quotations.

#1. Jan 23, 1984 to March 3, 1986
#2. Sept 14, 1984 to Jan 26, 1993
#3. April 1, 1986 to June 22, 1990
#4. Nov 24, 1993 to Jan 23, 1996

Map

Autobiography

Coded stuff (unbreakable code)

Notes on my Journals

Series I, #1, pp. 11-12. Actually, Stefansson's remark is not accurate. The Kalahari Bushmen are said to have little religion ...

Series I, #3, pp. 253-254. The name “Nicomus Bagley” is fictitious. The quotation actually is from a book of Adolf Hitler’s speeches titled “My New Order.” I was a little embarrassed to put a quotation of Hitler in my notebook.

Series I, #3, p. 284. I no longer believe in population-control laws, On the contrary, I hope the population explosion gets completely out of hand, because that will increase the likelihood that the system will collapse. Once the technological system is gone, population will decrease very rapidly, because without modern technology it will be impossible to produce and distribute enough food to supply such an enormous number of people.

Series II, #5, p.130. I now (Feb, 1996) Feel very sorry about the fact that, in a few cases, I tortured small wild animals (two mice, one flying squirrel, and one red squirrel, as far as I can remember offhand) that caused me frustration by steeling my meat, damaging my belongings, or keeping me awake. There were two reasons why I tortured them. (1) I was rebelling against the moral prescriptions of organized society. (2) I got excessively angry at these animals because I had a tremendous fund of anger built up from the frustrations and humiliations imposed on me throughout my life by organized society and by individual persons. (As any psychologist will tell you, when you have no means of retaliating against whomever or whatever it is that has made you angry, you are likely to vent your anger on some other object.) When I came to realize that I had taken out on these little creatures the anger that I owed to organized society and to certain people, I very much regretted having tortured them. They are part of nature, which I love, and therefore they are in a way my friends, even when they cause problems for me. I ought to save my anger for my real enemy, which is human society, or at least the present form of society. I have not tortured an animal for many years now. However, I have no hesitation about trapping and killing animals that cause problems for me, provided they are animals of the more common kinds.

Series II, #6, whole thing. I think part of the reason why I used to get so tired on those long sojourns in the woods was that I wasn’t eating enough. I used to reduce to a minimum the amount of civilized food that I ate, in order to be able to stay out in the woods longer.

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