The Names of the Stars: A Life in the Wilds

2016 Montana Book Award Honor Book

From the Author of Indian Creek Chronicles and the Winner of Five PNBA Awards, Pete Fromm’s New Memoir Sees His Return to the Wilderness to Explore a Life Lived in the Wilds.

Twenty-five years after his beloved memoir Indian Creek Chronicles, Pete Fromm was asked to return to the wilderness to babysit more fish eggs. No longer a footloose twenty-year-old, at forty-five, he was the father of two young sons. He left again, alone, straight into the heart of Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness, walking a daily ten-mile loop to his fish eggs through deer and elk and the highest density of grizzly bears in the lower forty-eight states.

The Names of the Stars is a trek through a life lived at its edges. From loon calls echoing across Northwood lakes to the grim realities of lifeguarding in the Nevada desert, through the isolation of Indian Creek and years spent running the Snake and Rio Grande as a river ranger, Pete seeks out the source of his passion for wildness, while exploring fatherhood and mortality and all the costs, risks, and rewards of life lived on its own terms.