This is an anthology of nearly four centuries of nature writing about one of America's premier regions--the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Beginning with Captain John Smith's eager gaze westward in search of gold and ending with contemporary essayist John Daniel's transformative gaze inward in search of wilderness, The Height of our Mountains features the work of seventy of the nation's finest writers on nature, from 1607 to 1997.
Responding to Thomas Jefferson's claim in Notes on the State of Virginia that -the height of our mountains has not yet been...
This is an anthology of nearly four centuries of nature writing about one of America's premier regions--the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Val...
"Reading the Roots" is an unprecedented anthology of outstanding early writings about American nature--a rich, influential, yet critically underappreciated body of work. Rather than begin with Henry David Thoreau, who is often identified as the progenitor of American nature writing, editor Michael P. Branch instead surveys the long tradition that prefigures and anticipates Thoreau and his literary descendants.
The selections in "Reading the Roots" describe a diversity of landscapes, wildlife, and natural phenomena, and their authors represent many different nationalities, cultural...
"Reading the Roots" is an unprecedented anthology of outstanding early writings about American nature--a rich, influential, yet critically underapp...
Before the West Was West examines the extent to which scholars have engaged in-depth with pre-1800 "western" texts and asks what we mean by "western" American literature in the first place and when that designation originated.
Calling into question the implicit temporal boundaries of the "American West" in literature, a literature often viewed as having commenced only at the beginning of the 1800s, Before the West Was West explores the concrete, meaningful connections between different texts as well as the development of national ideologies and mythologies....
Before the West Was West examines the extent to which scholars have engaged in-depth with pre-1800 "western" texts and asks what we mean by ...
Before the West Was West examines the extent to which scholars have engaged in-depth with pre-1800 western texts and asks what we mean by western American literature in the first place and when that designation originated.
Calling into question the implicit temporal boundaries of the American West in literature, a literature often viewed as having commenced only at the beginning of the 1800s, Before the West Was West explores the concrete, meaningful connections between different texts as well as the development of national ideologies and mythologies....
Before the West Was West examines the extent to which scholars have engaged in-depth with pre-1800 western texts and asks what we mean by we...
Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most important figures in American nature writing, yet until now readers have had no book devoted to this central theme in his work. -The Best Read Naturalist- fills this lacuna, placing several of Emerson's lesser-known pieces of nature writing in conversation with his canonical essays. Organized chronologically, the thirteen selections--made up of sermons, lectures, addresses, and essays--reveal an engagement with natural history that spanned Emerson's career. As we watch him grapple with what he called the -book of nature, - a more...
Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most important figures in American nature writing, yet until now readers have had no book devoted to this central...
