The Sacred Earth: Writers on Nature & Spirit
Editorial Reviews
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"This book is no substitute for being outside," writes the noted environmental activist David Brower in his foreword to this anthology of inspirational nature writing. For those who happen to be stuck indoors, this slender volume, composed of short prose excerpts from longer literary works, makes for a nicely vicarious experience of the wild. Jason Gardner, an environmental journalist and editor, takes the view that the natural world is sacred, whence his emphasis on the spiritual side of nature writing. The writings he has assembled reinforce that belief, touching on the beauty, strangeness, and life-changing qualities of wild places. Gardner draws on such works as Peter Matthiessen's quest-for-the-soul epic The Snow Leopard, Edward Abbey's back-to-the-land manifesto Desert Solitaire, Gary Snyder's self-exploratory treatise The Practice of the Wild, and Terry Tempest Williams's religiously charged collection of essays An Unspoken Hunger. Most of the selections will be familiar and perhaps unsurprising to regular readers of contemporary nature writing; Gardner might have ranged a bit farther afield to bring in lesser-known voices (and voices from spiritual traditions outside of northern Europe). Even so, his book makes for a useful companion to slip into an office desk drawer or glove compartment--if not the backpack pocket David Brower would surely prefer. --Gregory McNamee
The Sacred Earth: Writers on Nature & Spirit,Jason Gardner,New World Library,1577310683,Essays,Natural History,Natural Resources,Nature,Nature/Ecology,Psychological aspects
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