Writers in the Wild

 

“Let us do something to make the mountains glad,” John Muir, one of America’s earliest conservationists, wrote in 1892. Like many other ecology-oriented writers, Muir celebrated what he saw as a spiritual connection between humans and the natural world. The following selections explore the grace and mystery of those wonders of nature and their distinct mark on our minds and spirits.

Titles

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
–Richard Louv
Do children spend too much time inside? In this compelling book Richard Louv looks at the unhealthy implications of what he calls ’nature deficit’ on children, adults and society as a whole.

The Solace of Open Spaces
–Gretel Ehrlich
Moving to Wyoming in search of solace and anonymity, Ehrlich instead found herself awakened by the vast wild spaces of the West. This book charts her path of self-discovery while effortlessly capturing the savage beauty of the place she comes to love.

A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There
– Aldo Leopold
In this classic work conservationist Aldo Leopold takes time to consider the wild things that are often taken for granted in the modern world, and encourages us to reevaluate the blessings of nature.

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
– Annie Dillard
Deeply contemplative and poetic, this Pulitzer Prize-winning essay collection explores solitude, writing and religion from the vantage point of a year spent examining
the natural world of Tinker Creek in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Keeping a Nature Journal: Discover a Whole New Way of Seeing the World

Around You
– Clare Walker Leslie &Charles Roth
Filled with sketches and notes taken from the authors’ own journals, this book teaches everything from different styles of nature writing to the delicate task of sketching birds on the fly.

Of Prairie, Woods, and Water: Two Centuries of Chicago Nature Writing
–Joel Greenberg
This wonderful collection of nature writing from generations of Chicagoans charts the changes in the natural environment that occurred during Chicago’s rise over the last two hundred years from marshy plain to bustling metropolis.