A Wild Idea

July 1, 2021
Investigative reporter Franklin recounts the life of the free-spirited millionaire entrepreneur who used his fabulous wealth in the fight to save nature. One constant in the epic life of North Face founder Doug Tompkins (1943-2015) was his enduring love of the outdoors. The son of a successful antiques dealer, he grew up in the countryside of Millbrook, New York (Timothy Leary was a neighbor), where he cultivated his love of the natural world. His contrarian ways eventually led to his expulsion from high school just weeks before graduation. Tompkins headed West, where he baled hay in Montana, raced Olympic skiers in the Rockies, and took up rock climbing in California. He also "hitchhiked by airplane throughout South America." Tompkins ended up in San Francisco, where, by the mid-1960s, the skiing and climbing supplies business he started with the help of Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard suddenly began to boom. He was a charismatic businessman, and every one of his ventures after that--from his wife's Plain Jane dress company to his own Esprit clothing brand--was successful. But his Midas touch never changed his passion for travel and adventure--e.g., flying his Cessna, sometimes with his family, but often, to the detriment of his marriage, solo. In the early 1990s, Tompkins bought property in southern Chile and fell in love with its pristine beauty. His outrage over the resource extraction-based nature of the Chilean government's policies fueled his desire to protect the land. In the years that followed, he became an outspoken, sometimes reviled conservationist dedicated to using his fortune to transform thousands of acres of Patagonia into national parks. The great strengths of this timely, well-researched book lie not just in the author's detailed characterization of Tompkins' complex personality, but also in the celebration of his singularly dynamic crusade to save the environment. A satisfyingly heartfelt tribute to a thoroughly remarkable man.

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Starred review from July 1, 2021
Some top business people change the world through the products they create. Think Steve Jobs and Apple. Few change the world by walking away from their thriving enterprise and embracing an entirely new mission. Doug Tompkins did both with considerable success. As founder of the iconic North Face outfitters and cofounder with his first wife of the trendy Esprit fashion brand, Tompkins' business acumen was legendary. He was hard-wired to the counter-culture aesthetic of the late 1960s and can be credited for creating the prototype for the perk-rich, employee-centric corporate model later emulated by Silicon Valley. Yet his heart lay elsewhere. Tompkins recognized environmental instability early on. Always a fearless adventurer, he fell in love with Patagonia's untouched wilderness and made it his life's work to acquire million-acre tracts of still unspoiled but imperiled land in Chile, with the ultimate goal of creating a chain of national parks that would preserve the spine of South America. Fearless and vigorous into his seventies, Tompkins died in a kayak accident, shocking global philanthropic, business, conservation, and adventure communities. Through a diligent yet sparkling, multifaceted biography, award-winning journalist Franklin evokes the charisma and commitment of this titan of both commercial and conservation realms.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 30, 2021
Journalist Franklin (438 Days) takes a look at the life and work of American businessman-turned-conservationist Doug Tompkins (1943–2015) in this accessible biography. Admitting that he’s “lived many years in awe of Doug Tompkins,” Franklin pays tribute to the North Face founder’s “love affair with the wild.” Franklin describes the office environment Tompkins helped to create during the 1970s and ’80s at Esprit headquarters in San Francisco: the company had a rooftop trampoline for fun, for instance, a sign of its eclectic work culture. Much of the account deals with Tompkins’s experiences in South America after he divorced and sold his stake in Esprit, netting him approximately $300 million. He donated to wildlife preservation groups and accumulated parcels of land in Chile and Argentina to establish national parks: “He bought entire valleys, purchased volcanoes, acquired stands of old-growth trees with substantial financial contributions from key allies in the U.S. and Europe,” Franklin writes. Franklin’s admiration for Tompkins is clear, though he gives fair play to the man’s many contradictions: “Tompkins was an environmentalist who drove a red Ferrari. A multimillionaire who preferred to sleep on a friend’s couch.” Readers who love stories of business mavericks will find much to savor.