The subtitle of N.B. “Red” Sorensen’s book, The Man Called Red, is an understated fact: An Autobiography of a Guide and Outfitter in Northern British Columbia. While this may suggest a limited audience of interest, those who shy away – whether from an aversion to hunting, camping, outdoor living, or simply cowboys – will be missing a marvelous opportunity to witness the life of an extraordinary, exemplary man during a rapidly vanishing time in a rapidly vanishing place. Mr. Sorensen begins his story with an adventure and a horse, which becomes a recurrent theme for this young man who dreams of becoming a cowboy – and who does – but also develops into an accomplished rancher and an expert hunting guide to those seeking wilderness trophies and adventures.

“Red” Sorensen tells his life in The Man Called Red with the characteristic reserve and understated humor typical of men seduced by the great outdoors. One likes him almost immediately, both for his character, his honesty and integrity, and for his singular, unbending self-accountability. He gets on well with almost everyone he meets – becoming the bane of those who cheat and lie and steal – and marries a woman he deserves and appreciates as much as he does the land that he explores and worships. From the early 1900s until the present day, “Red” Sorensen recounts with exquisitely detailed descriptiveness his wilderness adventures and all-too-frequent brushes with mortal danger, whether from ubiquitous mountain predators, natural catastrophes, foolish fellow men, or his planes that seem to crash too often. If you sign up for his ride, prepare to be awestruck by the country he guides you through, and the quality of this man called simply “Red.”

The Man Called Red: An Autobiography of a Guide and Outfitter in Northern British Columbia by N.B. "Red" Sorensen is a hearty story of a man who lived his life to the fullest and who is now sharing his adventures with us. It takes courage to live a life that is potentially dangerous and unknown. Red is among those guys who live for the next big adventure and he is unafraid of failing. Since he was two months old, horses played a very considerable part in his life. After that, he worked a multitude of jobs, he was a cowboy, a Forest Ranger, helped send a bad politician to jail, created a ranching enterprise, got married, had two children, bought a hunting area and did so much more. He lived a fulfilling life, braved many dangers, and came out of it a survivor. He has lived to tell the tales and he is sharing all this with us.

I find myself in awe of this man. He literally is the most inspiring person I ever read about. After reading this book, I almost feel like I personally know him. His stories are brave and very good. You just have to admire him for his sheer tenacity to live his life the way he wanted to. And I admire his wife who kept up with him; my mom would have killed my father if he did anything of this sort. It takes a special kind of woman to love a man as extraordinary as Red. It was nice knowing both of them through Red’s words.

This is a story well worth taking the time to read. Having been raised in Norwestern Minnesota and farmed until going in the Army, then been overseas a lot, including Vietnam, and now in Montana for many years, I have had at least a taste of what he writes about.
What Red describes is his own progress toward a business and service for others, but also recognizes the role of nature, the wilderness, and how it is possible to derive a living from a rough land.

My father hunted with red out of Fort Nelson in 1969 and I just got done watching his old video of his hunting trip with red outfitters. Although I have not read his book yet I intend on buying it to read about the man who led my dad on his first northern British Columbia hunting trip and from there went on to hunt Yukon Northwest Territories and Alaska and finally Africa