“Justice Douglas was a complicated figure, and his record is far from spotless. But with his hiking boots on he brought things to American governance and jurisprudence that hadn’t been there before: a clear-eyed love for the world around us and a sense of the threats it faced. If he seems to us like a figure from another era, there were ways in which he was well ahead of his time.”—Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

“A magnificent portrayal not only of a heroic and brilliant yet nonetheless flawed justice but of the conservation movement of the second half of the twentieth century in which Justice Douglas played a surprisingly central role. Judge McKeown’s highly engaging and richly detailed account underscores the enormously positive impact Douglas had on preserving the nation’s landscape.”—Richard J. Lazarus, professor of environmental and constitutional law at Harvard Law School

“We remember Justice William O. Douglas as the brilliant, irascible, much-married Supreme Court dissenter—but this fascinating and highly readable book makes the persuasive case that this unusual man was, above all, one of the great environmentalists of the twentieth century. Those of us who love the American landscape and its remaining wild places, as he did, are in his debt.”—Linda Greenhouse, author of Justice on the Brink: The Death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Rise of Amy Coney Barrett, and Twelve Months That Transformed the Supreme Court

“William O. Douglas was chronically controversial, frequently cantankerous, sometimes conniving, and often cavalier about judicial ethics. But whether on the bench or on the trail, he toiled tirelessly and creatively to protect the wilderness he held so dear. This colorful and compelling book secures his rightful place in the pantheon of environmental champions.”—David M. Kennedy, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945