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This Incomparable Land: A Guide to American Nature Writing
Nature writing is essential to awakening an ecological way of seeing. The author covers the full spectrum of the genre, including field guides, travel and adventure stories, and essays on solitary and back-country living. This new edition contains an updated bibliography of primary and secondary sources in nature writing through the end of the 20th century.
- GenresNatureNonfiction
250 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 8, 2017
This book is a compilation of nature essays by a very diverse group of writers. Each is different from all of the others.
Most of the early writers like J.J. Audubon are more essays about their walks and the plants and/or creatures seen. This view of the country long before paved roads paints a picture like and unlike the world of today. It's unlike because so much of what these people saw no longer exists. It's like as the attitudes are the same. I found it interesting that Audubon went out to see the forest birds. He had seen them outside his house. Now he had to take a two day journey. Yet he praises the loggers cutting down the forests where these birds live.
Some of the essays are more about the human psyche than about nature.
So many of the later essays advise changing human attitudes toward the land, its inhabitants and uses. Most people aren't listening, then or now.
I enjoyed most of the essays. The tongue in cheek one by Edward Abbey had an undercurrent of humor. Others described beautiful places. Each essay has a short comment about who the author was.
Most of the early writers like J.J. Audubon are more essays about their walks and the plants and/or creatures seen. This view of the country long before paved roads paints a picture like and unlike the world of today. It's unlike because so much of what these people saw no longer exists. It's like as the attitudes are the same. I found it interesting that Audubon went out to see the forest birds. He had seen them outside his house. Now he had to take a two day journey. Yet he praises the loggers cutting down the forests where these birds live.
Some of the essays are more about the human psyche than about nature.
So many of the later essays advise changing human attitudes toward the land, its inhabitants and uses. Most people aren't listening, then or now.
I enjoyed most of the essays. The tongue in cheek one by Edward Abbey had an undercurrent of humor. Others described beautiful places. Each essay has a short comment about who the author was.
May 20, 2013
It was the right book but the wrong reader. See full review: http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blog...
February 8, 2013
The first hundred pages are the reason I bought this anthology - a well written overview of American Nature writing.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews