American Wilderness - Hardcover

Gorman, Stephen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 078930273X ISBN 13: 9780789302731

Publisher: Universe, 1999

Synopsis

Photographer and outdoor writer Stephen Gorman takes readers on an illustrated journey through eleven of the United States' most remarkable wilderness destinations. Covering this vast country literally from coast to coast and beyond, Gorman has painstakingly compiled a stunning visual travelogue that showcases the American outback in all its extremes: from Florida's ten-thousand islands, California's Death Valley, and Hawaii's Midway Atoll to Prince William Sound in Alaska, the Boundary Waters in Minnesota, and Montana's Missouri Breaks. With unsurpassed color photography, historical maps, and rich, detailed descriptions, Wild America resonates with history, invoking the experiences of the earliest explorers of these harsh, unspoiled landscapes. Simultaneously, Gorman's images and words, accompanied by an appendix with practical travel information on each locale, invite the reader to rediscover the American wilderness for themselves. Gorman's engaging text and photography is eloquently introduced by fellow outdoor writer and New York Times Book Review contributor David Quammen, who thoughtfully examines America's renewed rapport with nature at the turn of the millennium. Americans are awakening as never before both to the fragility and to the awesome power of this country's diverse wilderness landscapes--as is borne out by the wild popularity of books, films, and television programs that cover outdoor adventure and natural phenomena. Wild America offers readers a considered, reverent salute to America's immeasurably valuable natural heritage. Stephen Gorman writes and provides photographs regularly for Outside, Men's Journal, Audobon, Wildlife Conservation, Backpacker, Skiing, and the Discovery Channel Online, and is a contributing editior at Sports Afield.

About this title

Review

Some people can take a trip to the gas station and make it sound wild, so surreally alive, that you can see it as a feature-length film. Others could journey to a distant sun and you'd find yourself nodding off, thinking their descriptions make the McNeil-Lehrer Report seem outrageous and riveting. Author-photographer Stephen Gorman, earnest, enthused, and talented though he is, sometimes falls into the second category of adventurer whose storytelling becomes snoreytelling. Where the exact problem lies is anyone's guess. There's nothing wrong with the writing of this journalist, published in Audubon, Outside, and Men's Journal. In this book he travels through wilderness areas from Maine to Hawaii, some so isolated he feels guilty writing of them. There's nothing wrong with following the trails of others before him--be they of Hudson Bay traders, Lewis and Clark, or the Nez Perce--that take him through abandoned canyons, across the Everglades, into pristine waters, or old mountain "towns" so isolated that outlaws by the hundreds once went there to disappear. He canoes, he hikes, he swims; he shadows his text with historical insights and today's environmental woes.

Maybe it's the font. But so many of his "adventures" come off flat regardless of the terrain: "The gully is deep and sports an impressive set of sharp, oil-pan-ripping stones.... For perhaps the tenth time this morning, Dan jumps out to do some road work.... After he clears the path, I depress the accelerator ever so slightly, trying to gain purchase without spinning the wheels..... Fortunately, Dan has the good sense to stand off to the side."

Thankfully, the book is peppered with photos--some stunning, especially those of birds--to keep you alert whenever unmoving text weights your eyelids. Another plus: the travel planner in back, which gives essential info about each of these 10 trips. Maybe there's nothing wrong with this book. Perhaps nature is by nature boring. At least that's the impression you may get when you doze off reading this take on it. --Melissa Rossi

From the Publisher

Stephen Gorman's "American Wilderness" with its stunning photographs and riveting stories provides an adventure of the spirit, bringing far off places to life. Gorman's unusual background as an accomplished photographer, wilderness guide and explorer with a master's degree in environmental studies from Yale makes him well suited to tackle the American wilds. He captures the American wilderness in words and images which resonate throughout his book, drawing praise from many noted editors and reviewers.

About this edition

• Publisher: Universe
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 078930273X
• ISBN 13: 9780789302731
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 159