A prolific and iconoclastic writer, a socialist, and a conservationist, Scott Nearing—along with his wife Helen—is now considered the "great-grandparent" of the back-to-the-land movement. Nearing was born August 6, 1883, in Morris Run, Pennsylvania. He is the author of nearly fifty books and thousands of pamphlets and articles, some of which have become classics of modern environmentalism.

Originally a law student at the University of Pennsylvania, Nearing received his B.S. from that university in 1905 and a Ph.D. in economics in 1909. He was the secretary of the Pennsylvania Child Labor Commission from 1905 to 1907. He taught economics at the Wharton School, at Swarthmore College, and at the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio. In 1915, he was dismissed from his position at the Wharton School for his politics, particularly his position on child labor. A pacifist, he was arrested...