Book Review: Naked in the Woods
Robert Nott - The Santa Fe New Mexican
Mar 17, 2008
Naked in the Woods: Joseph Knowles and the Legacy of Frontier Fakery by Jim Motavalli, Da Capo Press, 352 pages
Extra, extra! Read all about it! "Naked man kills bear with bare hands, wrestles deer to ground and skins it!"
You like that catchy headline? Try this one: "Modern-day Adam seeks Eve to live off land in clothing-optional setup."
Or, to really grab 'em: "In youth, outdoorsman blew himself through family's roof with gunpowder!"
These are just a few of the activities that naturist/naturalist Joseph Knowles reportedly engaged in about a century ago. Jim Motavalli's captivating biography of Knowles recounts the story of this Tarzan-like woodsman, who was said to be capable of living for a month at a time in the wilderness without supplies or clothes.
According to Motavalli, in the summer of 1913 Knowles headed into rural Maine in a highly publicized stunt, sponsored by The Boston Post, designed to prove that man could "return to nature." He kept a journal of his activities, which the Post turned into regular stories on his progress. The paper's circulation grew rapidly due to its sideshowlike promotion of Knowles as a contemporary caveman.
When Knowles staggered out of the forest some time later (on the Canadian side of the border, where he was eluding U.S. forest wardens who intended to arrest him for hunting and starting a fire without a permit), he was proclaimed a hero. Some 200,000 Bostonians turned out to see Knowles upon his return to civilization, and he was paid a handsome sum to recount in vaudeville the details of his reported battle with a bear.
Then somebody blew the whistle on Knowles, claiming the whole affair was just a cheap publicity stunt and that Knowles was a fake. And that's where the real story begins.
Knowles seemed to know a lot of theater types, suggesting he had a liking for show business. He also claimed that his background included being raised and educated by Indians; a stint in the merchant marines, during which he learned karate; and a couple of explosive instances involving dynamite and gunpowder.
Motavalli, a journalist and editor of E/The Environmental Magazine, has done his homework and does a nice job recounting the story of Knowles, who died in 1942. Motavalli writes in a clean, clear manner, punctuating the tale with doses of humor and putting the entire saga in historical context: Knowles' rise to fame was due in large part to the fact that, at that time, Americans were mourning the loss of the frontier as the Industrial Revolution swept the country.
Plus, people were gullible enough to believe anything. They wanted to embrace the idea of a naked man battling a bear to the death out there in the wild. Not surprisingly, many of Knowles' most ardent fans were men and boys, many of whom fantasized about pulling a Daniel Boone themselves. But the wily Knowles also had his share of female admirers, some of whom sent him rather provocative letters.
Later, Knowles did try to find an Eve in an ill-fated attempt to extend his fame. The Nature Woman in question was Elaine Hammerstein, granddaughter of opera impresario Oscar Hammerstein and first cousin of Oscar II of musical-theater fame. Motavalli uses historical press materials about this abortive effort to good effect, painting a most amusing portrait of a dainty city girl unwilling to get her feet muddy or hands bloody. One hilarious highlight of the book is a quote from a newspaper that reported on grass-skirted Hammerstein as seen from the point of view of a colony of beavers.
Was Knowles' story fact or fiction? The book is well worth a read to find out. Motavalli only stumbles when he inserts himself into the narrative about halfway through, as he attempts to play detective to ferret out the truth. And Knowles' post-Nature Man career as a visual artist comes off as dull; Motavalli can't really do much with this part of the story except pad it with extraneous data - such as a few background paragraphs about well-known character actor Edward Everett Horton, who sometimes visited Knowles.
In an intriguing epilogue, the author examines both contemporary real-life figures (like Steve Gough, who walked across England nude in 2003) and reality-television shows (such as Survivorman and Man vs. Wild - whose star survivalist, Bear Gryllis, recently came under scrutiny when it was suggested that he isn't always roughing it as much as he claims to be) to demonstrate that the spirit of Knowles is still with us. This is good, solid evidence that, over the last several decades, Knowles has served as inspiration to survivalists, vegetarians, woodsmen, and nudists - not to mention phonies and fakers.
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