Hazel Wolf: Fighting the Establishment

By Susan Starbuck

Book Overview

When Hazel Wolf died, at the age of 101, more than nine hundred of her friends -- from the governor of Washington to union organizers, from birdwatchers to hunters -- crowded Town Hall in Seattle to honor the feisty activist and tell the often outrageous "Hazel stories" that were their common currency. In this book, Hazel herself tells the stories. From twenty years of taped conversations, Susan Starbuck has fashioned both a biography and a historical document, the tale of a century's forces and events as played out in one woman's extraordinary life. Hazel Wolf earned a national reputation as an environmentalist and was awarded the National Audubon Society's Medal of Excellence, an honor she shared with Rachel Carson and Jimmy Carter. She laid the groundwork for a unique coalition of Native Americans and environmentalists who are now working together on issues related to nuclear energy, fisheries, and oil pipelines. She lectured and taught at schools and universities all over the United States. She lobbied Congress on irrigration, labor rights, nuclear energy, and peace, and she corresponded with a global network of environmental leaders. But for all her influence, she never held a political post higher than precinct committee officer in Seattle's 43rd legislative district, and her highest office in the environmental movement was that of secretary in the Seattle Audubon Society, where she served for thirty-five years. This book follows Hazel Wolf from childhood to old age, a lifetime of burning with a fierce desire for justice. She saw the quest for justice as a collective responsibility. Time and again, she met that challenge head on. Whether organizing for labor rights or founding chapters of the Audubon Society, battling to save old-growth forests or fighting deportation to her native Canada as a communist, over and over she put herself in the line of fire. "I was just there," she said, "powerless and strong, someone who wouldn't chicken out."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0295982225
• ISBN13: 9780295982229
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Length: 408 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 2.3" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Hazel Wolf- A persistent power for the right things in life

A powerful woman! If you think you have energy, read what this woman did right up to the end of her 101 years.

Activist Wanted to Have Fun

Hazel Wolf could have been your grandmother. A real tomboy, she grew up with her toes in the sand of Pacific Northwest beaches and her fingers around a basketball. The working class kids of Victoria B.C. were her "gang," and the comradeship and fun they cooked up animated her whole life.Later, working as a secretary in Depression-era Seattle, Wolf organized fledgling unions wherever the bosses assigned her. They'd fire her for organizing, re-assign her to a new job, and she would begin organizing again. Like she always did, Hazel was just making friends and having fun. In one of the "Hazel Stories" that fill the book, sheriff's deputies tried to evict a down-and-out family from their home by carrying the furniture out onto the sidewalk. Hazel and her friends, who sometimes cared to call themselves socialists or communists, simply carried the chairs and tables back into the house through the back door. The sheriff eventually gave up.The U.S. government tried to deport Hazel Wolf during the McCarthy period because she was a) a communist, and b)Canadian. Just like the sheriff, the feds failed, too. Hazel had thousands of friends, and she wasn't afraid of political pressure. As she said, "I was just there, powerless and strong, someone who wouldn't chicken out. Somebody always stops the nonsense all through history."Author Susan Starbuck says Hazel Wolf knew her life would make an important story; that it might evoke the next generation of social and environmental activists. At bookstore readings, Starbuck tells prospective readers, "Hey folks, here's an owner's manual about what to do when your government runs amok." The message of "Hazel Wolf: Fighting the Establishment" is theat we, too could have fun being activists...and also change the world.

Skillfully Done.

I have just completed reading Hazel Wolf's biography by Susan Starbuck, which was published by the University of Washington Press. Ms. Starbuck has skillfully knit together the words of Ms. Wolf, based on years of interviews with her, with her own author's narrative. Because Ms. Wolf's life was so dramatic and has been so vividly presented by the author, the book is interesting and preserves an important part of Northwest political history.

A must read for anyone interested in NW history

The jacket states that this book was based on twenty years of taped conversations. What it doesn't make clear is that the book is a mainly a transcription of these tapes; so this book is essentially an autobiography, rather than a biography!! What a pleasant and marvelous surprise![.] The author is to be commended for crafting this book by letting Hazel tell her story herself. In addition to learning more about Hazel, I found this book an interesting accounting of some difficult times in this country, and what life has been like in the Pacific Northwest over the past century.

A Must for Northwest Readers

In Hazel Wolf the intrepid determination of an irrepressible activist and feminist of the Northwest comes to life. The book captures the astute and often feisty voice of this extraordinary woman through her stories and memories. I found the book very compelling reading with its smooth progression of "stories" of a life never tranquil. As a newcomer to the Northwest, I loved getting to know this legendary woman through her own eyes. Additionally, Hazel Wolf's narratives gave me a richer understanding of the politics, environmental policies, and social history of the 20th Century. Starbuck's extensive research and painstaking ethnography impress as well; her self-effacing approach to the text fosters the impression that Hazel Wolf is speaking directly to the reader. I can imagine that Starbuck's relationship with Hazel Wolf was founded on mutual confidence and respect. Ultimately, the book inspires its reader to "act." Hazel Wolf is a spirited and gutsy woman, and anyone living in the Northwest should get to know her.