Reading the Roots: American Nature Writing Before Walden
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
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 affiliations, religious views, and ideological perspectives. The writings gathered here also range widely in terms of subject, rhetorical form, and disciplinary approach--from promotional tracts and European narratives of contact with Native Americans to examples of scientific theology and romantic nature writing.
The volume also includes a critical introduction discussing the cultural, scientific, and literary value of early American nature writing; headnotes that contextualize all authors and selections; and a substantial bibliography of primary and secondary sources in the field. Reading the Roots at last makes early American landscapes--and a range of literary responses to them--accessible to scholars, students, and general readers.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From the Publisher
The first anthology devoted exclusively to our earliest nature writing.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Reading the Roots: American Nature Writing Before Walden
Reading the Roots: American Nature Writing Before Walden,Michael P. Branch,University of Georgia Press,0820325481,American - General,Essays,Literature - Classics / Criticism,Natural history,Nature,Nature/Ecology,United States,United States - General,Collections & anthologies of various literary forms,English,NATURAL HISTORY, COUNTRY LIFE & PETS,USA
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