Nature Writing

Does anyone here read environmental non-fiction (nature writing)? I am quite fond of this genre and am always looking for suggestions. Some of these writers whom I enjoyed are Loren Eiseley, Wendell Berry, Barbara Kingsolver, Edward Abbey, Barry Lopez, Mary Austin, Rachel Carson, Henry Thoreau, Terry Tempest Williams, John Muir, John Burroughs, Scott Russel Sanders, (selected) Annie Dillard, John McPhee, Farley Mowat and many others.

If you also enjoy this type of writing, what are your favorite books, authors, or other aspects of this genre?

I guess I'm just hoping to start some general literary conversation on this topic.

Loren Eiseley! Comedian, you are the first person I have come across who has read him too! The Immense Journey was one of the first non-fiction books I read - I was of an age when 'non-fiction' meant 'text book' and it was a surprise and delight to find an author who wrote with such passion on a factual subject: his pictures in words set me on a life-time's reading of 'nature' books.

I suppose one of the books that influenced me most was Blueprint for a Green Planet by John Seymour aand Herbert Girardet. I suppose it is hardly a 'literary book' but in terms of communicating its message, it certainly spoke to me.

David Attenborough's books read well - if you have ever seen his tv programmes, you can 'hear' his voice in his writing.

Gilbert White's Natural History of Selborne never fails to give me pleasure, as does Walton's The Compleat Angler. If you like gardening, then Reginald Arkell's 'fictional biography', Old Herbaceous, the life of an old-school gardener, might delight you as much as does me on many re-readings.

Have never heard of any of those authors, but thanks for suggestions. I definitely have to try some.... :nod:

@ kasie -- I was introduced to Loren Eiseley by my father a long time ago. And I've loved nearly every sentence he wrote. I remember my dad's underlined copy of Eiseley's The Unexpected Universe with great fondness, and I return to those pages frequently. His prose is at once scientific and florid, a combination that I greatly enjoy. And, like most nature writers, Eiseley's work has an element of our spiritual search meaning and place -- a journey that I feel that I am always on in some way or another.

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If you like gardening, then Reginald Arkell's 'fictional biography', Old Herbaceous, the life of an old-school gardener, might delight you as much as does me on many re-readings.

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I haven't read this work but will most certainly give it a try. Thanks for the recommendation.

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Originally Posted by Veva

Have never heard of any of those authors, but thanks for suggestions. I definitely have to try some.... :nod:

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Veva, if you like writing that sings of place or writing in which the setting is a character, then you are in for a treat.

Ive just finished Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods about hiking the Appalachian Trail. It was interesting and very funny, although Im not sure it fits the profile. It is very positive about the environment, nature and the maintainance of it.

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Originally Posted by Paulclem

Ive just finished Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods about hiking the Appalachian Trail. It was interesting and very funny, although Im not sure it fits the profile. It is very positive about the environment, nature and the maintainance of it.

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I loved Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. And I'd call it nature writing -- nature writing is not simply purple-y descriptions of scenic places. It's much more about human experience in the natural world, be that experience romantic, naturalistic, comedic, or otherwise.

Side note: Bryson's A Natural History of Everything is also quite good.

I've read about half of A Brief History of Everything. It's also very good. I've read his Notes from a Small island and the Australian one - Down Under? - which was hilarious. He makes a good mix of observational comedy, natural history and travelogue.

Good choice for a thread, Comedian, as I have always loved this genre of literature, though I have explored it much less than I would prefer; this may give me a few more ideas.
My interest in nature writing came from where likely most gained a lot of inspiration from, the Transcendentalists (Emerson, Thoreau, Channing, Fuller), but, like you, I have explored a bit of Kingsolver, Muir, and Burroughs. By how much attention it has received here, and elsewhere, perhaps I will look into Bill Bryson, too.
Recommended to me by an old friend, who actually studied environmental science at the time of her promoting this book, I read A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold a few years ago, and feel compelled to recommend it further as a relatively neglected book in this genre. It reads much like a journal, from month-to-month, and explores some ecology, botany, economics, and environmentalism, but consists a lot of Leopold's thoughts, meditations, and reflections amid such surroundings, seeming very reminiscient of Thoreau's Walden or A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, and almost as quotable in some parts, too.

Agree with Kasie as to Gilbert White's "Natural History of Selborne" and Walton's "Compleat Angler."

Have you tried Richard Jefferies?

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Originally Posted by mono

.Recommended to me by an old friend, who actually studied environmental science at the time of her promoting this book, I read A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold a few years ago, and feel compelled to recommend it further as a relatively neglected book in this genre. It reads much like a journal, from month-to-month, and explores some ecology, botany, economics, and environmentalism, but consists a lot of Leopold's thoughts, meditations, and reflections amid such surroundings

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I loved A Sand County Almanac! Leopold's style and insight into the human relationship with the natural world is truly moving. A quotation from that book that I still remember without looking it up: "we only save what we love. And we only love what we know". It's hard to get more poetic and direct about how to go about building an environmental ethic than this.

If you want to read more of this area, I heartily recommend Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez (who lives in Oregon, if I remember correctly). It won the National Book award and rightfully so -- I doubt there is its equal in modern environmental nonfiction: part natural history, part philosophic meditation, part religious exercise. . . . and Lopez is a beautiful prose stylist.

I think Silent Spring is the work that springs to my mind first. It was really well-written and profound. Rachel Carson really doesn't pull punches.

Good list of writers. Kerouac wrote a nice piece about a summer he spent all by himself atop a mountain in Wash. State while watching for forest fires.

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Originally Posted by byquist

Good list of writers. Kerouac wrote a nice piece about a summer he spent all by himself atop a mountain in Wash. State while watching for forest fires.

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I love this story by Kerouac -- it's titled "Alone on a Mountain Top", if I recall. Kerouac brings a city-boy's mind-frame to the outdoors experience that I always appreciate.

One of the elements of nature writing that I enjoy is just this: how the natural world challenges us and changes us in some way. Often, nature writing is the writing of a journey into the natural world and the corresponding story of a return to "home" with something of value (often of mental or spiritual value).

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Originally Posted by byquist

Good list of writers. Kerouac wrote a nice piece about a summer he spent all by himself atop a mountain in Wash. State while watching for forest fires.

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Desolation Peak. It is mentioned in both The Dharma Bums and Desolation Angles, perhaps more.

I'm also interested in nature writing and the solitary individual, it is half of what attracts me to Wordsworth I think. I've also started reading Walden!!!;)

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Originally Posted by Whifflingpin

Agree with Kasie as to Gilbert White's "Natural History of Selborne" and Walton's "Compleat Angler."

Have you tried Richard Jefferies?

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No - thanks for the pointer. :)