Last Man Standing (and Hunting and Trapping and . . .)

Before her tale of eating, praying, and loving inspired legions of (mostly) female fans to do the same, author Elizabeth Gilbert was writing essays about rugged men, including a profile for GQ on the modern naturalist Eustace Conway. The essay served as the inspiration for her book The Last American Man, which chronicles Conway’s peculiar ways of connecting with the land—including riding horseback across the country, and creating and living off a land preserve he calls Turtle Island.

The experiences of Eustace Conway are so divergent from those of the author herself, but their life stories are similar in that they are tales of self-discovery. Conway shuns modernity not as a publicity stunt but for a primal need to be one with nature; Gilbert escapes the fallout of a failed marriage by traveling the world to understand who she really is. For those of us whose moments of reflection go beyond what happens in front of the mirror when getting ready in the morning, their respective quest for authenticity serve as motivation. Although it’s unlikely I’ll ever trap animals for my clothing and food needs—and I may never visit an ashram in India (although the odds of the latter are greater than the former)—I find their paths instructional and inspirational.