This Incomparable Land: A Guide to American Nature Writing

Lyons (Great & Peculiar Beauty: A Utah Reader) reflects on the 12 years since the first edition of this guide to note the growth and maturation of the field of nature writing. While this edition does not include the anthology presented in the first edition, it retains the taxonomy and the annotated bibliography, which form the bulk of the text, as well as a chronology of our nation's treatment of the environment. The bibliography spans the 19th and 20th centuries; the annotations guide one to the scientific content and the flavor of the titles. Also included is a beautifully written essay on the taxonomy some might call it a history of nature writing. Unfortunately, there are no illustrations, which would only have added to the book's appeal. Any public or academic library without the first edition should own the second. Robert Moore, Parexel Corp., Waltham, MA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Nature writing has flourished in America, steadily extending its scope in direct proportion to the complexity of the environmental issues that arise as technology magnifies our species' effect on the planet. A form of communion with the natural world and expression of the "ecological way of seeing," that is, the perception of pattern and interconnection that makes life on earth possible, nature writing combines science and philosophy, romanticism and spirituality, ethics and autobiography. Lyon covers it all in his succinct yet specific and enlightening survey, offering a unique and revealing naturalist's chronology of American history, a taxonomy of nature writing that identifies an array of subgenres from field guides to "rambles" and accounts of "solitude and back country living," and a vital discussion of the evolution of environmental thought. He also profiles a number of key writers, from Thomas Jefferson to Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, and Terry Tempest Williams, and provides a comprehensive, annotated bibliography. Given the surge in nature writing courses and publishing, Lyon's expert analysis is timely and invaluable. Donna Seaman
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