Richard Louis Proenneke (/ˈprɛnəkiː/; May 4, 1916 – April 20, 2003) was an American self-educated naturalist, conservationist, writer, and wildlife photographer who, from the age of about 51, lived alone for nearly thirty years (1968–1998) in the mountains of Alaska in a log cabin that he constructed by hand near the shore of Twin Lakes.

His parents married in December 1909 and had three daughters and four sons: Robert, Helen, Lorene, Richard (Dick), Florence, Paul, and Raymond (Jake).

[1]: xiii Proenneke enlisted in the United States Navy the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor and served as a carpenter.

[1]: xiii  According to one of his biographers and friend, Sam Keith, the illness was very revealing for Proenneke, who decided to devote the rest of his life to the strength and health of his body.

Beforehand, he made arrangements to use a cabin on Upper Twin Lake owned by retired Navy Captain Spike Carrithers and his wife Hope of Kodiak (in whose care he had left his camper).

[5][6] Proenneke's cabin is handmade and is notable for its fine craftsmanship as a result of his carpentry and woodworking skills; he also made 8mm films covering its construction.

He used metal containers for food storage: one-gallon cans were cut into basin shapes and buried below the frost line.

This ensured that fruit and perishables could be stored for prolonged periods in the cool earth yet still be accessible when the winter months froze the ground above them.

[7] Proenneke remained at Twin Lakes for the next sixteen months, after which he briefly went home to visit relatives and secure more supplies.

He returned to Twin Lakes the following spring and remained there for most of the next thirty years, traveling to the contiguous United States only occasionally to visit his family.

[9] A hardcover "commemorative edition", celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of when Proenneke first broke ground and made his way in the Alaskan wilds in 1968 was published by Alaska Northwest Books in 2018.

In 2005, the National Park Service and the Alaska Natural History Association published More Readings From One Man's Wilderness, another volume of Proenneke's journal entries.

These three final collections were published by the Friends of Donnellson Public Library, The Richard Proenneke Museum, and were edited by John Branson.