The Place Within: Portraits of the American Landscape by 20 Contemporary Writers - Hardcover

Daynard, Jodi

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393039994 ISBN 13: 9780393039993

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996

Synopsis

These writers, in voices ranging from the lyrical to the meditative, awaken or allow us to discover anew a feeling for what we call America in all its many faces. Here you'll find the American spirit in Phillip Lopate's gridlocked "Manhattan," in Richard Rodriguez's gay San Francisco, and in Gerald Early's uneasily "integrated" St. Louis. In her moving essay on South Dakota, Kathleen Norris reflects on the way objects change our experience of space. Gretel Ehrlich's essay on Wyoming is also about a cure for human grief. As a whole, these intimate portraits celebrate a sense of place, rural and urban, gritty and placid; and they show how landscape transforms us, becomes a place within.

A fresh, indelible portrait of America as it appears to our most gifted contemporary writers. For more than 200 years artists and writers have sought to capture not just America's face but also her polymorphous spirit, as it is embodied in the land itself. These portraits about places in our country's diverse landscape range from the hummingbirds of Montana to the neon lights of Times Square, the brush fires of Alaska to the Grand Canyon's silent grandeur. They share a common desire: to explore both the sensual and the spiritual connections we have to places and the creativity they inspire. Harry Crews, Joy Williams, Alan Lightman, Kathleen Norris, Bradford Morrow, Phillip Lopate, Gerald Early, Diane Ackerman, Scott Russell Sanders, and many others take us to places as they appear not through the camera lens of a traveler, but to the artist's inner eye. Finally, NASA astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman lifts us up above America into space, where he looks down upon the country in all its vast and yet poignantly fragile entirety. Taken together, The Place Within is a time capsule in words, by some of our most distinguished writers.

About this title

About the Author

Jodi Daynard is a writer of fiction, essays, & criticism.

From the Back Cover

Each of the writers in this beautiful collection of nearly all original pieces evokes a different place in our country's diverse landscape - a place he or she lived in, visited, or was intimately influenced or shaped by. These writers, in voices ranging from the lyrical to the meditative, awaken or allow us to discover anew a feeling for what we call America in all its many faces. Here you'll find the American spirit in Phillip Lopate's gridlocked "Manhattan", in Richard Rodriguez's gay San Francisco, and in Gerald Early's uneasily "integrated" St. Louis. In her moving essay on South Dakota, Kathleen Norris reflects on the way objects change our experience of space. Gretel Ehrlich's essay on Wyoming is also about a cure for human grief. As a whole, these intimate portraits celebrate a sense of place, rural and urban, gritty and placid; and they show how landscape transforms us, becomes a place within.

Reviews

Freelance writer Daynard has skillfully selected well-written and diverse pieces, some published previously, that reflect highly personal views of place. Several contributors describe the beauty of undeveloped spaces: Alan Lightman (Einstein's Dreams) offers a portrait of a remote Maine island; Diane Ackerman (A Natural History of the Senses) vividly evokes the Grand Canyon. Other essays, however, use nature?or even developed landscapes?as a backdrop for more intimately human concerns. Scott Russell Sanders (Writing from the Center) uses the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop to the ups and downs of his relationship with his teenage son; Phillip Lopate offers a compelling overview of his love affair with Manhattan. Included also is an article by Richard Rodriguez (Hunger of Memory) on gay life during the age of AIDS in San Francisco. Astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman closes with his bird's-eye view of the American landscape from a spaceship. This collection is an evocative and pleasurable read. First serial to the Boston Globe; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Daynard warns, "There are no picture postcards here," implying that the world is far too complex for mere prettiness. Even classic American transcendentalism, ala Thoreau, is no longer possible, she hints, in this uncompromising volume that traverses as much cultural and philosophical territory as it does geographical terrain. It's a pleasure to find Ellen Meloy as flinty as ever, writing about the migratory urge she shares with the birds of her two home states, Utah and Montana. Harry Crews explains how the "incredibly wild and strange" Okefenokee Swamp inspires his writing. Alan Lightman describes light and life on a Maine island. And Diane Ackerman sets her nimble imagination and sensual eloquence to work on the Grand Canyon. But wilderness isn't the only place that stirs the soul. Richard Rodriguez considers San Francisco and homosexuality; Gerald Early muses on St. Louis; and Phillip Lopate writes of Manhattan and desire. This fine anthology reminds us that sense of place is critical to an examined, connected life. Donna Seaman

While each of these essays describes a different part of the United States, they are more than just a description of places; they portray the writers' relation to them. Some describe the natural world, like Diane Ackerman's "The Grandeur of the Grand Canyon" and Donald Hall's "Winter," on coping with a New Hampshire winter. Others, like Phillip Lopate's "Manhattan, Floating Island" and Richard Rodriguez's "Late Victorians," about San Francisco, describe cities. Most are as personal as Suzanne Berne's "Cloverly," describing her childhood home in Virginia, and Kathleen Norris's "Dreaming of Trees," which describes the significance of trees in her virtually treeless South Dakota home. Only four essays have been previously published. All are examples of the familiar essay at its best. Editor Daynard, a journalist who also contributes an essay on suburbia, currently lives in Boston. Other recent "place" anthologies of note are The Earth at Our Doorstep (LJ 9/1/96) and A Place Called Home (LJ 8/15/96). Highly recommended.?Judy Mimken, Boise P.L., Id.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393039994
• ISBN 13: 9780393039993
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272