The Working Man's Intellectual

Many writers and intellectuals who put pen to paper do it either as a profession or as an extension of their career. University professors and journalists produce a profusion of great and interesting books that reflect the variegated variety inherent in human experience. A few writers, write as an addendum to lives that are quite different from those lived by residents of the ivory tower, the sidewalk cafe or the newsroom. Dare I say the library?

These writers write as an extension of their life. Their trade, skill or calling has given them a unique window on human experience that they are able to share with the world through excellent writing style. Peter Leschak is just such a writer.

Leschak's books are one of the reasons that despite my wholesale love for the modern iterations of the book, the buffet of choice will never totally replace the old hardcover. Several of Leshak's titles sit on my shelf, as they have for nearly two decades, waiting to be revisited. I recently, pulled a signed copy of his 1994 Seeing the Raven from the shelf, to peruse a few of his mellifluous essays on firefighting and life living in the woods of northern Minnesota.

Leschak is a working man's intellectual in the tradition of Eric Hoffer. Although unlike Hoffer, Leschak received a college education and even thought about a career of faith in the ministy. He brings the reflective introspection and outward analysis of the philosopher to his writing, while keeping it grounded in the realities of the life he lives. Whether he is writing about the vicissitudes of life and death fighting a wildland fire, or taking a walk in the woods with his old dog the Reverend, the tales are imbibed with the ethic that only someone who lives first and writes second can impart.

It is a special person who can live the life that Leschak leads and write about it well. I have always been a big admirer of the "working class philosopher". Men like Leschak who believe that a life doing something active with the body can inform and instruct the mind and the soul as a necessary corollary to enlightenment. I am hoping that Peter Leschak will continue to share his stories with us.