Kathleen Dean Moore lives in Oregon, at the confluence of two rivers, and, during the summer months, she resides in a little cabin at the edge of a southeast Alaskan inlet. As an essayist, activist, and professor, she brings together natural history, philosophical ideas, and creative expression in a search for loving ways to live on the earth. She has published three books of personal essays about living in the lively places where water meets land: Riverwalking, Holdfast, and The Pine Island Paradox. Her essays can be found in many journals, including Audubon, Discover, Orion, and the New York Times Magazine. Moore is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Oregon State, where she teaches courses on environmental thought and ethics. She is also the cofounder and director of Oregon State’s Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word.
This marvelous and sense-luscious collection of essays demonstrates
Moore's distinctive style which is rich in descriptive passages and
deep musings.”—Spirituality & Practice“Nature writing at its most
lyrical.”—Shambhala Sun“Moore recounts with descriptive poignancy
how moonlight rides the waves toward shore; how a rubber boa
relaxes and comes alive in the warmth of the human hand; how it can
feel to sit in the sun, savoring the air with a sense that is not
quite smell, not quite taste, but something in between. [Wild
Comfort] is an invitation to us to experience our own
belonging.”—Yes! magazine“Introspectives looking for nature writing
in the vein of Rachel Carson or Annie Dillard will appreciate Wild
Comfort, not only for its sensual imagery, but also for its
informative and encouraging tone. Moore’s impeccable attention to
detail and vivid descriptions invoking all five senses are
constant.”—ForeWord Reviews
“With attention to the smallest details of the natural world, this
very personal book unites our emotional world with the world that
surrounds us.”—Sierra Club’s blog The Green Life
"This slender collection of essays moves as powerfully and
inevitably as a tide. Wild Comfort may be rooted in grief, in loss,
in darkness, but Moore 's words carry us inexorably toward light
and hope."— Story Circle Book Reviews
“Wild Comfort is a richly poetic book, tipsy with life, and Moore a
wonderful guide to the wilderness and our own wildness. It’s a book
brimming with wonder, sorrow, happiness, and the intricate designs
of nature that can surprise and sustain us all.”—Diane Ackerman,
author of The Zookeeper’s Wife
“Kathleen Dean Moore is a writer whose senses, heart, generosity,
and intellect open in every direction. This book, filled with
knowledge of the natural and human worlds, is a superb naturalist’s
handbook. It is also a praise book: an illuminated manuscript whose
life overspills its own borders. In its grounded wisdoms, humility,
curiosity, and in the kaleidoscope beauty of its descriptions, Wild
Comfort reminds how to see, how to sing; how to welcome, with equal
gravity and grace, whatever asks entrance into our lives. It is
destined to become a classic.”—Jane Hirshfield
“What nature gives, it takes away. Kathleen Dean Moore feels the
ache of this truth in her bones. And yet in spite of grieving over
the death of friends, the extinction of species, and the tattering
of Earth's web, she finds comfort in natural and human creations,
in symphonies and snakes, in science and stars, in the beauty
constantly upwelling from the mystery we call life. This book
itself is such a consoling creation, a cause for gratitude and
joy.”—Scott Russell Sanders, author of A Private History of Awe
“Moore’s descriptions are powerfully visceral. Readers will find
that the world seems larger, wilder, and yet safer than they had
thought—more beautiful and more like home.”—Book Page
“This collection of essays, reveries, and meditations interweaves
keen observations of the natural world with descriptions of
wilderness travel, conversations, stories, and philosophical
musings. It is easy to imagine Moore lying next to Plato,
intensely focused and observant, pointing out the natural world’s
soothing and transformative miracles. She excels at it.”—The
Oregonian
“ Moore turns over rocks and describes what she finds—even if, like
a seething mass of snakes, it lacks traditional beauty. This
makes her experiences with nature extremely readable.”—The
Southwest Portland Post
"Good writers, like good friends, are equal parts familiarity and
surprise, giving us, upon each encounter, both the pleasure of
routine and the promise of something new. Such a writer is Kathleen
Dean Moore. Moore has a nice way of shaking us awake by
turning convention on its ear.”—The Advocate
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