A man walks completely naked into the wilderness to survive for two months without any food, human contact, tools or ready made shelter. Sounds like the latest episode of Survivorman? Well, almost. While Survivorman’s Les Stroud is performing quite impressive feats, and is “One man – alone in the wilderness… no food, no shelter, no fresh water, no tools… no camera crew” He is in some ways merely writing another page in the book that Joseph Knowles, the infamous “Nature Man” of Maine, started writing back in 1913. Upon emerging from his ordeal after two months, Knowles became a sensation and triumphantly toured the nation, lecturing about and demonstrating his woodsman survival skills.

In Naked in the Woods, environmental author and journalist Jim Motavalli not only portrays faithfully the life and times of Knowles, and the enthusiasm and controversy around his wilderness exploits, but also opens a window to the era. The author travels with Knowles from the forests of Maine to the Oregon coasts, the newsrooms of Boston to an artists’ driftwood cottage in the Pacific Northwest. Motavalli contextualizes the events in the relationship of humans and nature, Knowles’ life, and the media’s exploitation of popular trends, then and now.

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