Book of the year - Idaho Library Association 2019

Growing up in Ketchum, Idaho in the 1950s, Dana Stewart Quinney found magic in the wilds of Idaho’s Wood River Valley – unplowed, unskied, untracked, and unpeopled.

Her memoir, Wildflower Girl, recounts the life of an adventurous woman born for rugged and trackless places, leading her to a distinguished career in field biology. From tales of fishing with her father, who was a fishing guide for Ernest Hemingway and the renowned Sun Valley Resort; to a discovery of new species, each beautifully written chapter takes you on a nostalgic journey of mystery, adventure, and the magic of nature.

Bio:

Dana Stewart Quinney grew up in Ketchum, Idaho, and learned to flyfish, ride, and shoot as a child. Fascinated with the plants and animals of the mountains, she became an outdoor biologist, working as a conservationist in the Idaho high desert with special emphasis on small mammals and rare plants, and also teaching college students on field study expeditions to some of the wild places of the world. To Dana, everything is a story: why her grandpa shot a Hash Knife man in 1909 and what happens on the day of the spiders, how fireflies behave in the rainforest, how to raise baby pack rats, and what happened the time the Collies ate the cement. The author of many scientific publications, the young adult Scavenger Series, and her autobiography Wildflower Girl, she lives in Elmore County, Idaho, with her husband and Shelties.