On Nature's Terms: Contemporary Voices (Volume 13) (Louise Lindsey Merrick Natural Environment Series) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0890965226 ISBN 13: 9780890965221

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press, 1992

Synopsis

Outside, where the wind is blowing, we see the world on nature’s terms, and we see that it is severely endangered. Turning inward, we seek a sense of connection with nature that could perhaps help us through the current environmental crisis. In this book, some of the most observant Americans of our day explore these outer and inner worlds in powerful pieces that show the vitality and range of contemporary nature writing. John Hay’s “A Faire Bay,” an original collection of thoughts on the pollution of the Chesapeake, opens the book, and Edward Hoagland’s “A Year as It Turns,” a group of short seasonal pieces that originally appeared as editorials in the New York Times, serves as the conclusion.

Some of the other authors represented here include Rick Bass, Marcia Bonta, Charles Bowden, Jean Craighead George, Barry Lopez, Gary Snyder, and Terry Tempest Williams. Whether swimming with dolphins in the Florida Keys or stalking deer with the mountain lions, these authors experience and reflect on the terms nature sets and the terms we set for nature. With them, we discover the importance of the jack pine in the Boundary Waters, uncover the hidden beauty of Sonoran cacti, explore the very alive world of a Pennsylvania winter, visit the startling silences of the Canadian River Gorge in the Southwest, experience the breathtaking world of life on arctic ice, and view Venus at daybreak from the Grand Canyon. These are stories of place, and of family and friends, both human and nonhuman. They are tales of understanding and coming to terms with the world around us.

About this title

About the Author:

THOMAS J. LYON, of Carlsbad, California, edited the journal Western American Literature for over twenty years. He taught at Utah State University and has received awards from the Utah Wilderness Association and Bridgerland Audubon Society.

PETER STINE is the author of Survival, a collection of literary essays. He was the editor-in-chief of Witness from 1987 to 2008 and during that time received ten editorial grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

From Publishers Weekly:

The best selections in this collection of 20 essays, tales and explorations (most reprinted from the journal Witness , which Stine edits) fulfill Lyon's belief that nature writing ``reminds us of . . . the simple capacity of being here and experiencing.'' Such essays let readers share the joy of discovery, such as of a rare cactus, or the sense of rage that ensues with the destruction of an ecosystem. Stephen Trimble describes touchingly the difference a companion--wife, child or even dog--makes in how one perceives the wilderness. Rick Bass's depiction of a few summer days in northwestern Montana--floating for trout, saving his dogs from a porcupine's quills--creates a pastoral cocoon in which readers are enfolded. Charles Bowden asks disturbing questions about mountain lions, humans and the lust for the kill. Unfortunately, too many of the essays hector rather than enlighten. Marcia Bonta forces her comparison between the ``sane world of nature . . . and the often insane world of humanity,'' and William Kittredge pens a simplistic call to live more harmoniously, like the Native Americans of yore. Lyon edits the journal Western American Literature .

Copyright 1992 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0890965226
• ISBN 13: 9780890965221
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 222
• Editor: Lyon Thomas J., Stine Peter