Out of the Noosphere

Inside, the best of the first fifteen years of Outside

Cartwheeling down a Himalayan river. Climbing America's unfriendliest mountain. Dousing fires in the oil fields of Kuwait. Chasing African killer bees. For twenty years, Outside magazine has devoted itself to original and engaging reports on travel, adventure, sports, and the environment. This collection of the best of the stories from the first fifteen years features many of the country's finest writers, in a single volume:

EDWARD ABBEY

RICK BASS

JOHN BRANT

CHIP BROWN

BILL BRYSON

TIN CAHILL

E. JEAN CARROLL

PHIL GARLINGTON

JIM HARRISON

DONALD KATZ

WILLIAM KITTREDGE

JON KRAKAUER

BARRY LOPEZ

THOMAS MCGUANE

BILL MCKIBBEN

MICHAEL MCRAE

PETER MATTHIESSEN

PETER NELSON

GEOFFREY NORMAN

DAVID QUAMMEN

BOB REISS

DAVID ROBERTS

ROB SCHULTHEIS

BOB SHACOCHIS

LAURENCE SHAMES

GRANT SINS

ANNICK SMITH

RICK TELANDER

BILL VAUGHN

CRAIG VETTER

RANDY WAYNE WHITE

ED ZUCKERMAN

Whether you're an armchair adventurer or a true-life trekker, you'll be at once entranced and exhilarated as you go Out of the Noösphere.

Outside 's wide-open definition of its subject leaves great opportunity for diversity of material and expression. Sometimes this anthology succeeds in exploiting that opportunity, and sometimes it fails. Women are generally absent from these articles, and only two of the 40 pieces are even authored by women. The volume's subjects--people, home, nature and travel--are defined so broadly that David Roberts's heartwrenching story about losing friends in rock-climbing accidents is followed by Bob Shacochis's self-deprecating account of climbing Mount Ararat with the lungs of a smoker. Some of these highly personal tales manage to be both sensitive and funny, such as the story of Peter Nelson, who, revisiting the Boy Scout camp of his youth, wonders whether MTV has "sounded Nature's death knell" then learns soon after that his scoutmaster has died of a heart attack at 47. Others rely heavily on ironic understatement, like Bill Vaughn, who "sails" on the railroad tracks of Montana and whose reaction to an oncoming freight train is "Bummer." Although some of these are one-joke articles that go on too long, most will broaden an armchair traveler's horizons.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.