"One of the most perfectly and colorfully written books I've ever laid hands on." ~Lee Silva, author of Wyatt Earp: A Biography of the Legend. One stormy August night, a lightning bolt struck Mark Warren’s tin-roofed farmhouse and burnedxa0everything to the ground. Even his metal tools melted. Friends loaned him a tent, but after just a month it began to break down—which Warren vowed not to do. Instead, he decided to follow a childhood dream and live in a tipi. Excitement stirred in his chest, and so began a two-year adventure of struggle, contemplation, and achievement that brought him even closer to the land that he called home. xa0More than just the story of one man, Two Winters in a Tipi gives the history and use of the native structure, providing valuable advice, through Warren’s trial and error, about the confrontations that march toward a tipi dweller. It shows, without thumping the drum of environmental doom, how you can go back to the land for two days or two years. The wild plants that Natives harvested for food andxa0medicine still grow nearby. The foods still nourish; the medicines still heal. As Warren beautifully reveals, the wild places of the past still exist in our everyday lives, and living that wilderness is still a possibility. It’s as close as the river running through your city, the woods in your neighborhood, or even the edges of your own backyard. Mark Warren graduated Phi Beta Kappa in chemistry from the University of Georgia and pursued a career in music while working as a naturalist and educator for the Georgia Conservancy. The National Wildlife Federation named him Georgia's Conservation Educator of the Year. His articles on nature and survival skills have appeared in the North Georgia Journal , Georgia Backroads , and Blue Ridge Highlander . A U.S. national champion in whitewater canoeing and a winner of the World Championship Longbow Tournament, Warren founded and runs the Medicine Bow Wilderness School in the North Georgia mountains, where he lives.xa0He is also the author ofxa0 "Secrets of theForest," 2016-2018 Waldenhouse Publishing, a four volume series onnature and primitive skills (available at secretsoftheforestbook.com ormotherearthnews.com/store), "Born to the Badge" 2018 by Five Star (a2019 Spur Award Finalist), and "Promised Land" (named "Editor's Choice"by the Historical Novel Society) 2019 by Five Star completing thetrilogy "Wyatt Earp, An American Odyssey," and "Indigo Heaven" 2021 byFive Star, a novel of 1870's Wyoming. Read more
Features & Highlights
One stormy August night, a lightning bolt struck Mark Warren's tin-roofed farmhouse and burned everything to the ground. Even his metal tools melted. Friends loaned him a tent, but after just a month it began to break down—which Warren vowed not to do. Instead, he decided to follow a childhood dream and live in a tipi. Excitement stirred in his chest, and so began a two-year adventure of struggle, contemplation, and achievement that brought him even closer to the land that he called home.More than just the story of one man, Two Winters in a Tipi gives the history and use of the native structure, providing valuable advice, through Warren's trial and error, about the confrontations that march toward a tipi dweller. It shows, without thumping the drum of environmental doom, how you can go back to the land for two days or two years. The wild plants that Natives harvested for food and medicine still grow nearby. The foods still nourish; the medicines still heal. As Warren beautifully reveals, the wild places of the past still exist in our everyday lives, and living that wilderness is still a possibility. It's as close as the river running through your city, the woods in your neighborhood, or even the edges of your own backyard.
Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Reviews
★★★★★
5.0
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Finding the soul of the forest
If lightning struck your house, burning down your house, with your tools, piano and unfinished novel, leaving only you, the clothes on your back, a knife, a guitar and some field guides? The average person might go home to mom. Or crash on a friend's couch. But Mark Warren chose to fulfill a childhood dream: go build and live in a tipi.
Digging deep into his fascination with the woods, he makes a life for himself that most will only dream of. For about two years he makes his home out there. He experiences a simple life, with the profound joy of being connected to the natural world. And he experiences greater confidence at being able to meet his own needs.
He's married now. It's twenty years later, and he lives in a regular house. But the memory of this profound, focusing time lives on for him. "The land has shaped me, left its indelible mark. Every herb and tree and shrub is an old friend now," he writes. The gratitude that fills the book will resound through the reader's life for a long time afterwards.
12 people found this helpful
★★★★★
3.0
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Get Inspired
I have enjoyed reading survival type of stories of late and this one is one of the most inspiring ones I have read. It isn't full of the "survival" as much as it's full of the connection to nature. It is a beautiful book on how we have become so disconnected from living as nature shows us. The one thing I really enjoyed is that it's an actual account and not a fiction. That gave me the hope that I can make those same connections.
11 people found this helpful
★★★★★
4.0
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Forget medical school; I'm moving to a tipi!
Mark Warren is a naturalist who taught outdoor skills, and so much more, to all ages. He wanted to teach respect, appreciation and love for the outdoor world, animals and plants. His work included elementary school programs as well as senior citizens and all ages in between. Most of the book takes place in the forests of north Georgia in the U.S.
After completing his undergraduate work, Warren was accepted into medical school. He called the school and said he wouldn't be showing up because he had changed his mind. However he still had some scientific training which he took to the woods with him and that is one of the things that made the story fun for me. Warren told the usual tale of becoming one with the world and running with the deer, but then gave some of scientific explanation for it, which I always think is fun. For example when he talked about trees communicating with each other he talked about some research in that area. He said that it had been found that when a tree was ill or was experiencing an infestation of insects for examples, the trees surrounding it responded by going into a self-defense mode. Can't remember the details and have NO biology knowledge, but the trees pulled something in their leaves back into itself, the harder part of itself, making the tree less vulnerable. So Warren gives some explanation for what used to be considered old wives tales or new age gobbledygook and I always love it when I come across that kind of info.
When Warren's rental home in the woods burnt down, he decided to try living in a tipi and did so for two years. There is a lot of detail about building tipis and how they function that I found a little tiresome, and yet I had wondered about some of those things. Smoke, for example, problems with rain and other things were explained and was interesting.
There is also information about the Cherokee and their relationship with the world and with the government. I spent yesterday afternoon in the Anasazi Center in Cortez, CO and just left feeling so sad. It is a wonderful BLM museum, but I was just so struck by one particular photo that was described as being taken during the American Occupation. Something about that terminology and the reality of it struck deeper. The only place that made me more sad than that was Little Big Horn.
You can see there is a lot of variety in this book and it is a quick and interesting read.
8 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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A reminder of our spiritual connection with the world
Mark Warren, the author, is an incredibly gifted, knowledgeable, skilled, and compassionate individual who has a unique appreciation of the world. His wisdom regarding life and nature is leagues beyond that of the average naturalist. In this book, he shares more than his experiences over two years, rather he shares his spiritual quest for the essence of life.
We have been lucky to know Mark Warren for nearly three years. Tom, who is autistic, and I (his sister) have spent several days with Mark learning "survival skills" (as Tom calls them) through his company Medicine Bow near Dahlonega, Georgia ([...]). Mark shares his scientific, linguistic, and cultural knowledge with us while patiently and quickly adjusting to accommodate our needs, depending on Tom's moment to moment changes in interest. Despite our recent move across the country, we will continue to come to Dahlonega a few times a year to continue "survival skills." Yes, he's that good!!!
Mark is an incredible, peaceful spirit with an intuitive ability to connect with others and nature. He truly is a remarkable individual. We can't recommend his book or classes enough!
3 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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A reminder of our spiritual connection with the world
Mark Warren, the author, is an incredibly gifted, knowledgeable, skilled, and compassionate individual who has a unique appreciation of the world. His wisdom regarding life and nature is leagues beyond that of the average naturalist. In this book, he shares more than his experiences over two years, rather he shares his spiritual quest for the essence of life.
We have been lucky to know Mark Warren for nearly three years. Tom, who is autistic, and I (his sister) have spent several days with Mark learning "survival skills" (as Tom calls them) through his company Medicine Bow near Dahlonega, Georgia ([...]). Mark shares his scientific, linguistic, and cultural knowledge with us while patiently and quickly adjusting to accommodate our needs, depending on Tom's moment to moment changes in interest. Despite our recent move across the country, we will continue to come to Dahlonega a few times a year to continue "survival skills." Yes, he's that good!!!
Mark is an incredible, peaceful spirit with an intuitive ability to connect with others and nature. He truly is a remarkable individual. We can't recommend his book or classes enough!
3 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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Great Read!
As someone who has lived in the same watershed as the author for over thirty years; and also, as someone whose family has taken several of his workshops on plants, archery, and stalking, I can really relate to the touching stories in Two Winters in a Tipi. Thank you for helping make the "real world" of the Southern Appalachian mountains even more special to us! My family looks forward to more stories and adventures at your wilderness school, Medicine Bow, too!
3 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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Mark Warren Touches the Soul of the Forest in this Book
Fantastic! I love this book, I think it's got to be my all-time favorite. Mark Warren is a wonderful writer, he has one of the most beautiful ways of telling his story. I learned about him via an interview on NPR (I believe it was) and immediately I was enthralled by his life. The interviewer asked him to read a chapter in his book, Two Winters in a Tipi, it was music to my ears. Directly after the interview I went to Amazon and ordered it. He came through entirely on the title, "My Search for the Soul of the Forest ". I love it!
2 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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Wise Man found
As an avid reader, I've always understood what it meant to say a book is a real page-turner, although there were few that met the mark. This one was different. It was so enthralling from page one, and then throughout, that I bookmarked special passages to read aloud to others. I read a passage each evening at the dinner table while family was visiting last week and everyone sat silently in awe, as if they were bowing their heads in grace.
The author's inspired stories of running with the deer, his encounter with the giant copperhead, his tender moments in the forest with the fox and the fledgling fawn, the love he felt for his canine companion Elly, and his simple, but loving marriage ceremony are all testaments to a life in balance and harmony. The "soul of the forest" he is searching for, turns out to be the author himself.
This is truly a great book! Read it for yourself and then give a copy to a teen in your life. They will thank you for it.
I think Plato may have been thinking about this author when he said: "...a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men."
2 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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Life in nature
Mark Warren draws on a lifetime of nature experiences to write this fascinating glimpse of living outside our technological cocoon. The incidents come alive: leaping off the page like running with deer in the introduction. Subsequent chapters cover all the knowledge bases, enabling the reader to step into Mark's shoes and live literally under the tipi with him. To all those who long for fresh air and a life out of doors, or those who are curious but can't imagine it, try this book, you'll love it.
2 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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Rich in Life Lessons
Over the years, I've bought three copies of this book, giving them to friends as gifts. I've read the book at least five times, and make a point to re-read it every year. It is so rich in life lessons and perspective, not just what it's like to live in a tipi, though it's that too. Humanity (and the natural world) would be so much better off if everyone spent a year or two living in a tipi like this. Packed with beauty, nature, and good humor this well written book is easy to fall in love with, as is the forest he writes about. It's one of my all-time favorites.
