"Tim Ingold's correspondents include not only his fellow humans and their works, but also animals, trees, rocks, rivers, sunshine, wind, rain, and snow - in short, all of the variegated, sensate, ever transforming materials of a universe in constant becoming. Ranging across what the author has previously referred to as the "4 A's" (Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture) and beyond, and expressed through a prose that is at once exactingly lucid and engagingly lyrical, these writerly exchanges set out not merely to describe but embody the co-emergence and inextricable intertwinement of human and other than human being in the world."Stuart J. McLean, University of Minnesota"In his most artistic work, Tim Ingold invites the reader to wander through these 27 touching and breathing pieces of writing. During the process of reading them, an image has been growing along my correspondence with the author: this work is not a building, nor a box, rather a tent, or a beehive; it is made of linen cloths and wooden reeds provisionally rooted into the different grounds it encounters. It goes along with you, reader, adapting itself to the occurring weather."Nicola Perullo, Università di Scienze Gastronomiche di Pollenzo"Tim Ingold has taught with unparalleled grace how to think with the textures of a living world. In these marvelous new dispatches from the deep woods and coastal tidelands, from museum galleries and temple ruins, Ingold recovers an art of attentive writing."Anand Pandian, Johns Hopkins University"Tim Ingold's extraordinary book presents a celebration of the care of letter writing which in our age risks to disappear. Correspondences helps us to relearn the art of thinking and writing from the heart and is an urgent book for the 21st century."Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Director, Serpentine Gallery
Preface and AcknowledgementsInvitationPart 1: Tales from the WoodsIntroduction1.1 Somewhere in Northern Karelia...1.2 Pitch-black and firelight1.3 In the shadow of tree being1.4 Ta, Da, ÇaPart 2: Spitting, Climbing, Soaring, Falling Introduction2.1 The foamy saliva of a horse2.2 The mountaineer's lament2.3 On flight2.4 Sounds of snowPart 3: Going to Ground Introduction3.1 Scissors paper stone3.2 Ad coelum3.3 Are we afloat?3.4 Shelter3.5 Doing timePart 4: The Ages of the Earth Introduction4.1 The elements of fortune4.2 A stone's life4.3 The jetty4.4 On extinction4.5 Three short fables of self-reinforcementPart 5: Line, Crease and Thread Introduction5.1 Lines in the landscape5.2 The chalk-line and the shadow5.3 Fold5.4 Taking a thread for a walk5.5 Letter-line and strike-throughPart 6: For the Love of WordsIntroduction6.1 Words to meet the world6.2 In defence of handwriting6.3 Diabolism and philophilia6.4 Cold blue steelAu revoir
Tim Ingold is Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen.