ALBANY, N.Y. — Anne LaBastille, the environmentalist, sometime hermit and author whose “Woodswoman” autobiographies inspired others to venture into the wilderness, has died at a nursing home in Plattsburgh. She was 75.

Friends said she was ill the past few years but still owned a farm near Lake Champlain, as well as the cabin that she and friends built on Twitchell Lake in the western Adirondacks.

Her autobiographies began with “Woodswoman,” a 1976 account of cabin life on what she euphemistically called Black Bear Lake. It has sold more than 100,000 copies.

“Probably the most important thing is, she was a role model, an inspiration for a great many other women, young women,” said Dick Beamish, a friend and founder of Adirondack Explorer magazine.

LaBastille wrote a dozen books, as well as articles and essays for National Geographic and other magazines. She cut a striking figure with long blonde, later white, hair and often was accompanied by her German shepherds.

LaBastille earned a Ph.D. from Cornell in wildlife ecology.