The narratives in this book are of journeys made in three wildernesses – on a coastal island, in a Western mountain range, and on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. The four men portrayed here have different relationships to their environment, and they encounter each other on mountain trails, in forests and rapids, sometimes…
An incendiary call to protect the American wilderness requires more than a little of the old willing suspension of disbelief. Moving from one improbable situation to the next, packing more adventure into the space of a few weeks than most real people do in a lifetime. Author Edward Paul Abbey (1927–1989) was an American author…
The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruption and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecologic and economic disaster. Author Marc Reisner was an American environmentalist and writer best known for…
If you’re going to take a hike, the Appalachian Trail is probably the place to go. And Bill Bryson is surely the most entertaining guide you’ll find. He introduces us to the history and ecology of the trail and to some of the other hardy (or just foolhardy) folks he meets along the way. Author…
A chronicle of a solitary year spent on a Cape Cod beach, The Outermost House has long been recognized as a classic of American nature writing. Henry Beston had originally planned to spend just two weeks in a seaside cottage, but was so possessed by the mysterious beauty of his surroundings that he found he…
The final book in his trilogy about landscape and the human heart. Robert Macfarlane reveals to us a forgotten world: routes, roads, trade routes and routes that pilgrims once followed. Author Robert Macfarlane is a British nature writer and literary critic. Educated at Nottingham High School, Pembroke College, Cambridge and Magdalen College, Oxford, he is…
The harrowing tale of British explorer Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 attempt to reach the South Pole, one of the greatest adventure stories of the modern age. Author An American journalist who wrote for Collier’s, among other magazines and was later an editor for Time, Inc. Books. Alfred Lansing served in the US Navy from 1940-46. He…
Desert Solitaire (1968) is one of Edward Abbey’s most critically acclaimed works and marks his first foray into the world of nonfiction writing. Written while Abbey was working as a ranger at Arches National Park outside of Moab, Utah, Desert Solitaire is a rare view of one man’s quest to experience nature in its purest…
Genius of Place tells the story of one of the most important figures in the history of America, Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted was a fervent abolitionist, noted journalist, Civil War hero, early environmentalist, and the landscape architect behind New York’s Central Park, Boston’s Emerald Necklace, Stanford University, the Biltmore Estate and dozens of other green…
An impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also an evocation of and paean to the natural world. Discussed May 19, 2019Book recommended by Grace
