ABOUT THIS BOOK

Recent Thoreau studies have shifted to an emphasis on the green" Thoreau, on Thoreau the environmentalist, rooted firmly in particular places and interacting with particular objects. In the wake of Buell's Environmental Imagination, the nineteen essayists in this challenging volume address the central questions in Thoreau studies today: how “green,” how immersed in a sense of place, was Thoreau really, and how has this sense of place affected the tradition of nature writing in America?

The contributors to this stimulating collection address the ways in which Thoreau and his successors attempt to cope with the basic epistemological split between perceiver and place inherent in writing about nature; related discussions involve the kinds of discourse most effective for writing about place. They focus on the impact on Thoreau and his successors of culturally constructed assumptions deriving from science, politics, race, gender, history, and literary conventions. Finally, they explore the implications surrounding a writer's appropriation or even exploitation of places and objects.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Richard Schneider is professor of English and Slife Professor in the Humanities at Wartburg College. He is the author of Henry David Thoreau in the Twayne United States Authors series and the editor of Approaches to Teaching Thoreau's “Walden” and Other Works.

REVIEWS

“ … a challenging and insightful collection of essays. Each contribution enlarges the reader's understanding of Thoreau and the "green" movement in US writing. ” — P.J. Ferlazzo, Choice Magazine

“Schneider's collection of 19 essays on Thoreau's environmental writing enhances the argument, set forth by Buell, that Thoreau articulated the various and occasionally contradictory ways Americans would think about the natural world …This is a challenging and insightful set of essays.”—PJ. Ferlazzo, Choice Magazine

“This unique, socholarly collection of essays painstakingly examines the writing of Thoreau, comparing him with other environmental writers and stressing literary scholarship within environmental studies … (a) lofty collection.”—Joyce Sparrow, Library Journal

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Foreword by Lawrence Buell

Introduction

Believing in Nature Wilderness and Wildness in Thoreauvian Science laura dassow wa l l s

Thoreau’s Transcendental Ecocentrism william r o s s i

‘‘Climate Does Thus React on Man’’ Wildness and Geographic Determinism in Thoreau’s ‘‘Walking’’ richard j . schneider

‘‘In Search of a More Human Nature’’ Wendell Berry’s Revision of Thoreau’s Experiment ted olson

Water-Signs Place and Metaphor in Dillard and Thoreau james a . papa, j r .

The WrittenWorld Place and History in Thoreau’s ‘‘A Walk to Wachusett’’ david m . robinson

Thoreau, Thomas Cole, and Asher Durand Composing the American Landscape i s a i a h smithson

Reading Home Thoreau, Literature, and the Phenomenon of Inhabitation peter blakemore

Seeing the West Side of Any Mountain Thoreau and Contemporary Ecological Poetry j . scott bryson

TenWays of Seeing Landscapes in "Walden" and Beyond james g . mcgrath

Sauntering in the IndustrialWilderness bernard w. quetchenbach

"Walden," "Rural Hours," and the Dilemma of Representation rochelle johnson

Wordsworth and Thoreau Two Versions of Pastoral greg garrard

Humanity as ‘‘A Part and Parcel of Nature’’ A Comparative Study of Thoreau’s and Taoist Concepts of Nature aimin cheng

Speaking for Nature Thoreau and the ‘‘Problem’’ of ‘‘Nature Writing’’ nancy craig simmons

Depopulation, Deforestation, and the ActualWalden Pond robert sattelmeyer

Skirting Lowell The ExceptionalWork of Nature inAWeek on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers stephen germic

Rustling Thoreau’s Cattle Wildness and Domesticity in ‘‘Walking’’ barbara “barney” nelson

Counter Frictions Writing and Activism in the Work of Abbey and Thoreau susan m . lucas

contributors

works cited

index

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