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Biography "His father left in a desperate search for work. The food
supply diminished until all that was left were a few pinto
beans and a single egg, which no one would eat. E u
e l l,
then teen-aged and one of four children, took a knapsack one
morning and left for the Horizon mountains. He came back
with puffball mushrooms, piñon nuts, and fruits of
yellow prickly pear. For nearly a month, the family lived
wholly on what he provided" |
As an adult Euell Gibbons lived in
many states including California, Washington, Hawaii, New Jersey,
Indiana, and finally in Pennsylvania. On his visit to Hawaii from
1947 to 1951, he met and married Freda Fryer. E
u e l l longed to be a fiction writer but evidently could
not get published.During his lifelong travels he was a cowboy, hobo,
carpenter, surveyor, boat builder, beachcomber, newspaperman, school
teacher, farmer, and an educator. All along, building on the wild
food foundation he got from his mother. My impression, from his
writings, is that he learned a lot from his hobo days. Those days
where he foraged both from society and nature to acquire his
sustenance.He would visit libraries to research wild foods. He
would become acquainted with people in small towns and ask them about
their uses of wild foods. He would seek out local experts and
exchange information. And finally, he would experiment and invent new
ways to process wild foods. His family, friends, and neighbors were
the taste-testing guinea pigs for new recipes he would invent.His first book in 1962, "Stalking the Wild Asparagus",
became an instant hit. The content evidently touching a chord with a
burgeoning back-to-nature movement. This and his next two books
(See reviews of
Euell's best three books) were packed with information on how to
find, gather, and prepare wild foods. Many magazine articles
followed, either written by or about E u e
l l. He wrote for Organic Gardening and
Farming, National Geographic, and National Wildlife Magazines, among
others.Euell Gibbons helped found, and was a charter member of
such groups as the National Wild Food Association (West Virginia),
Foraging Friends (Chicago), and I'm sure many others. By 1971, E u
e l l's books became more philosophical and less about wild
foods - all still good reads. Even though he had only a sixth-grade
education, E u e l l
was awarded an honorary doctorate from
Susquehanna University.As he received more literary notoriety,
E u e l l
became somewhat of a celebrity. He made appearances on talk
shows (The Johnny Carson Show), variety shows (The Sonny & Cher
show), and television commercials for Post Grape Nuts cereal. E u e
l l displayed a
great sense of humor. At one point, to everyone's surprise, he began
eating a wooden plaque awarded him on the Sonny and Cher television
show. The plaque was really a prop made out of wafer cookies or some
other edible substance.This fame was a double-edged sword. On the one hand it
had the effect of exposing more people to the topic of wild foods. On
the other, E u e l l
became ridiculed by many of his
readers/followers who felt like he sold out to big business and the
commercial world. To many, he was reduced from a respected naturalist
icon to a laughable pitch-man for a cereal company. To those in the
know, however, he remained a respected naturalist.His last residence was in Beavertown, Pennsylvania,
where he lived with Freda until his death on December 29, 1975. He
was 64. Euell died of a heart attack. It was probably a result of
cardiovascular disease complicating a pre-existing condition called
Marfan syndrome. Marfan syndrome would have made his aorta more
susceptible to a catastrophic bursting. Euell had a smoking habit and
regularly, as can be seen in his writings, added saturated fats
(bacon grease, butter, egg yolks) to his vegetables. In E u
e l l's day it was not unusual to smoke cigarettes or to
add high amounts of saturated fat to foods. These risk factors
combined with his hard life and lack of exercise in his later years
(arthritis pain limited his movement) undoubtedly contributed to his
death.E u e l l's
legacy is the treasure of lifelong experiences and knowledge
he left us regarding foraging and unusual culinary delights. Boston
University is maintaining a collection of his personal journal
entries and notes, and Alan Hood has reprinted his first three
books.E u e l l,
more than anyone else in North American history, got people
thinking, talking, and eating wild foods. Many wild food writers give
us the menu, E u e l l
gave us the meal.Author's note #1 (March 7, 1999): The information in this article was compiled from obituaries, John McPhee's remembrance, book-jacket biographies, personal reports, and from my interpretation of his fame and writings. I, unfortunately, never got to meet Mr. Gibbons and hope that the information here is representative and accurate.
Author's note #2 (July 17, 2008): Since writing this article, several of Euell's surviving relatives have contacted me. All expressed appreciation for its overall affectionate tone and accuracy. None have contradicted any of the content.
Author's note #3 (July 17, 2008): Detail on cause of death is included here to squelch rumors. Fabricated causes of death typically form for deceased food, nutrition, or diet celebrities. Rumors I personally heard ranged from eating a poisonous plant to choking on a wild food. I felt that facts must be available somewhere to counter the rumors. And while the information I present may disappoint some (who wants to hear that a naturalist was a smoker?), readers should not view the past with today's sensibilities. Gibbons was born about one hundred years ago. That was before there was radio, television, talking films, commercially available sliced bread, antibiotics, the Vietnamese war, the Korean war, World war II, and even World war I. He died before the personal computer was invented, before Walkmans, and before Jimmy Carter was president. Euell's generation had different perceptions than we do today.
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